


'>'>. 



rr. 






.0^ 

O 5* 











- ^.^m-^ %v^ ^^^i^^-. Vo^' ^:^»: %^ 



A 



^ 






-^ 



Y -..- .,a-^v %/ ^:c^%f^». \/ /Jfev %,*^ 






' »^ •>• 



<J>. " o « o ^ ^V 






;/7i^' 



^v-^^ 

Z^-^. 










o ^_ t^ 







c 







^^^^ 







.O"" o""" 



•\.^ 
v" 

^^..*^ ; 











<=L.. "''.^'^ .^0•' <^^^ *„;-o' .^ 



o"^ »L!oL'* "'■^^ 
















^0^ 




o " o - "^ 



J* <." 








7- i 2L i" 



VERSAILLES AND THE TRIANONS 



n1 

VERSAILLES 

AND THE 
TRI ANONS 



BY 

PIERRE DE NOLHAC 

DIRECTOR OF THE VERSAILLES MUSEUM 

ILLUSTRATED IN COLOR BY 

RENE BINET 




NEW YORK 

DODD, MEAD & COMPANY 
1906 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Copies Recelvsd 
NOV 2 1906 

- Cogyrltht Entry 

oa. //.'7o4 

CLASS A XXc., No. 
09 



Ypy b. 



m 



Copyright, 1906 
By Dodd, Mead and Company 

Published October, 1906 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER I 

Versailles in History and Art d 

CHAPTER n 

The Palace and the Apartments . . ,., ... « 

CHAPTER HI 

The Museum of French History « , 

■ • ■•'' ■•' •• 109 

CHAPTER IV 

The Garden of Versailles « 

• • • • . . 147 

CHAPTER V 
The Court and the Fetes of Versailles . . " 238 

CHAPTER VI 
How Louis XIV Spent His Day at Versailles: 

His Habits and His Character "284 

CHAPTER VII 

The Grand Trianon . u 

326 

CHAPTER VIII 

The Petit Trianon . « 

• 374 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

The Palace of Versailles Page 7 

Hamlet of the Petit Trianon " 13 

The Great Gallery, OR Galerie DES Glaces . . " 21 

The Anteroom Known as the CEil de Bceuf . . "27 

Central Facade, Fronting the Parterre d'Eau " 35 

7 

The Palace from the Southern Parterre . . " 43 

Royal Court with Statue of Louis XIV. . . "49 

The Steps of Latona " 55 

The Basin of Latona " 61 

The Grove of the Colonnade " 67 

The Gateway of the Palace, and the Grand 

Stables " 73 

The Northern Parterre and the Chapel . . " 79 

The Chapel " 85 

The " Dying Gaul "" " 91 

The Salon of Peace " 97 

The Walk of Ceres " 103 

Statue of General Hoche "113 

The King's Garden "119 

Church of Notre Dame at Versailles ... "125 

Louis XV/s Library "131 

Archway in the Galerie des Glaces . . . . "137 

The Marble Staircase ........ "143 

Flight of Steps, Northern Parterre . . . . "151 

The Labyrinth. Statue of Minerva .... "157 

Garden of the Petit Trianon "163 

vii 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Bronze Amorise in the Allee d'Eau .... Page 169 

The Allee d'Eau " 175 

Fountain AT THE Grand Trianon " 181 

Choir of the Chapel " 187 

Basin of Latona " .J93 

Caffieri's Clock . " i99 

Bronze Group on the Parterre d'Eau ..." 205 

Altar in the Chapel "211 

Petit Trianon "217 

Petit Trianon. The Flower Garden ..." 223 

The Lawn. (Tapis Vert) " 229 

Louis XV.'s Inner Sitting-Room " 235 

Madame Adelaide's Drawing-Room .... " 243 

The Dauphin's Sitting-Room " 249 

Grand Trianon " 255 

Petit Trianon. Flower Garden ..... " 261 

The Basin of Apollo " 267 

Basin of Neptune " 273 

Parterre of Latona "279 

Petit Trianon " 291 

Petit Trianon. The Orangery " 299 

The Marble Court " 307 

The Southern Parterre "317 

The Parterre d'Eau " 327 

The Palace from the Southern Parterre . . "337 

Southern Parterre " 345 

The Car of Apollo at Sunset "351 

The Grand Stables " 359 

The Basin of Latona " 365 

The Parterre of Latona " 375 



viu 



VERSAILLES IN HISTORY AND ART 

VERSAILLES fills so large a place in the 
traditions of the French nation and in the 
history of its art that it behoves the for- 
eigner to acquire an accurate idea of it, and 
to visit it w^ith care and attention. It is necessary to 
know Versailles thoroughly, with its palace, its gar- 
dens, and its memories, if one wishes to understand 
the facts of the political and artistic pre-eminence of 
France during one period of her old regime. 

The visitor who comes to this famous spot for the 
first time should, in order to obtain a vivid and true 
impression of it, avoid the town itself as far as possi- 
ble, and approach the Palace through the parks that 
are on that side. If he wishes to have a complete 
idea of the place he should be careful first to make 
the round of the Palace and gardens without enter- 
ing them, and then, approaching by the St. Cyr 
road, for instance, or from the Trianon direction, 
enter the gardens at their furthest point on the west- 



VERSAILLES 

em side, through the gates that are near the Grand 
Canal. He will thus have followed all the roads 
through the wide avenues and glades of the great 
park of former days, avenues and glades that have 
been preserved in the heart of the woods that once 
heralded the approach of a royal residence. When 
the visitor leaves his carriage, and stands at the 
gates of the magnificent garden, he will find that 
there is no recent building, no sign of modern civili- 
sation visible, to divert his thoughts from the insistent 
memories of an older day; he can imagine himself 
to be approaching a domain of the past that has 
never suffered change. 

By the basin in which the great trees are reflected, 
where the Car of Apollo and the Horses of the Sun 
rise above the waters, the long line of the Royal 
Avenue opens out. The eye follows its double row 
of statues and its grass plots, and rising step by step, 
catches at last a straitened glimpse of the outline 
of the Palace among the foliage. One can dis- 
tinguish fairly well from here the windows of the 
Galerie des Glaces, upon which the setting sun 
glows every evening fantastically. And the path 
along which the eye has darted in an instant may 
be traversed on foot in a few minutes — among the 
flower-beds, or under the high arches of the trees, 
towards the terrace, behind which the half seen 

[2] 



IN HISTORY AND ART 

building is gradually hidden and at last disappears 
altogether. 

Suddenly, when one has mounted the staircase 
of Latona, the whole mass of the building comes into 
view in its entire length and in much its most im- 
posing aspect. The centre of the Palace, where the 
royal apartments were, projects in a strong, square 
mass, the effect of which is lightened by colonnades 
and a quantity of sculpture; on each side an immense 
wing extends, repeating, a hundred paces further 
back, the plan of this noble design, and the pointed 
roof of the chapel is the only interruption to the 
monotony of the lines. To the right they end in a 
projection, above a distant horizon; to the left they 
are merged in the lofty heights of the trees, which 
thus seem to carry on the majestic effect of the archi- 
tecture. 

This is the spot where one may see at a glance, 
in its almost unaltered glory and in its perfect 
unity, the most famous dwelling-place of the Mon- 
archy, designed by King Louis XIV. to serve as the 
symbol of his reign and the monument of his 
greatness. 

In this way one may secure a preliminary lesson 
from history, and at the same time enjoy a first im- 
pression of the dominating beauty of this building 
that can never be effaced. If one has the time, one 

[3] 



VERSAILLES 

may then turn one's attention to the details, and em- 
ploy months and years in learning them, by reading 
the books that have been written by experts on the 
period of the former Court, and on French artists 
of the past. If the visitor has a taste for architec- 
ture, or sculpture, or decorative painting, he may 
here propound and solve a thousand problems. The 
interior of the palace, ravaged by endless changes 
but nevertheless full of uninjured relics of the best 
periods, will give him the most fruitful of educa- 
tions. The more closely he can fix his attention, 
and the oftener he can repeat his visits, the greater 
number of interesting works he will find. The 
documents of the past — if he criticises them methodi- 
cally, rejecting the false myths that are collected in 
so many works — will re-create for him the most bril- 
liant era of a great nation, and he will feel that 
there is nowhere that the past can be brought to 
life more vividly than in the decorations of Ver- 
sailles. 

The double attraction of art and history gives this 
Palace a rare prestige; a prestige, indeed, that might 
be called unique if it were not for the existence 
of the Vatican. There is no princely dwelling in 
Europe that combines so many glorious and interest- 
ing memories in a setting of such perfect beauty. 
France, who for a long time despised this treasure, 

[4] 



IN HISTORY AND ART 

as she squandered so many others, is happy to-day in 
the possession of it, and is making every effort to 
repair the effects of her long neglect. This work, 
which is the synthesis of absolute monarchy, is the 
one that this nation — now so democratic — shows to 
foreigners with the greatest pride. There is none, 
in any other place, which educated men of all coun- 
tries seek with a more lively curiosity; it would seem 
as though they regarded it, in some respects, as 
the spot most characteristic of the genius of this 
nation. 

It was a movement of pride that prompted Louis 
XIV. to build Versailles, when he had reached the 
zenith of his power. He desired to have the most 
beautiful and the most splendid dwelling in the 
world; to surpass even Italy, where hitherto the 
finest designs in architecture had been found. What- 
ever may have been the inspiring thought of the 
founder, the remembrance of it in no wise changes 
our judgment of the achievement, so strong and so 
complete, that we owe to Louis XIV. We cannot 
even deny him the merit of having conceived it him- 
self, and of having determined upon the form its 
beauty should take. The greatest glory of the 
Grand Rot is derived from the perfection reached 
by literature during his century, and from the wealth 
of artistic production. It is with regard to the latter 

[5] 



VERSAILLES 

that the master's personal influence is most obvious 
and most undeniable. 

The creation of Versailles contributed very greatly 
to that prodigious development of French art, which 
thenceforward took the place of Italian art as the 
director of taste in general. So many artists — the 
best in every line of art — united in the same work 
and at first guided by the illuminating mind of Col- 
bert, so many marvels accumulated in the same spot 
for the glorification of a single king and a single 
nation, so much genius working for a common end, 
and so great an achievement of money and men, made 
upon the mind of Europe a more powerful impres- 
sion than any victory or any treaty! And the in- 
fluence obtained by force of arms was more lasting 
and more fruitful because of it. The palaces built 
in imitation of Versailles in the very countries where 
Louis XIV. was hated the most, such as Germany, 
bear witness to the admiration inspired by this 
masterpiece of the art of the monarchy, and prove 
its dominating influence over the minds of the 
day. 

After having suffered for long years from un- 
measured contempt and disparagement, Versailles 
has once more, to a certain extent, taken the place 
in the national imagination that it formerly held. 
This mighty artistic creation of the *' great reign," 

[6] 



IN HISTORY AND ART 

uninjured by the following reigns as regards its 
principal lines, and even the nineteenth century — 
so destructive of the relics of France — is at last under- 
stood as it deserves to be. For a long time it was 
less favourably judged. 

By the close of the old regime, and indeed even 
in the time of Louis XV., one of those convulsions 
in the taste of the French nation which are apt in 
that country to destroy any particular form of ad- 
miration so quickly, had attacked a work whose im- 
portance should have held it secure from the caprices 
of fashion. In the time of Marie Antoinette, Le 
Petit Trianon, with its delicate decoration and its 
" English " garden, was contrasted with Versailles 
by the writers and intelligent people of the day, and 
helped to make it despised. The theories of the 
French Revolution tended to bring contempt upon 
Versailles and upon the art that had conceived it. 
The romantic period, whose aesthetic principles were 
so impassioned and so narrow, finally brought both 
into complete disrepute. The famous verses of Al- 
fred de Musset are sufficient evidence as to the 
opinion of his contemporaries with regard to " the 
tiresome park of Versailles." Large parts of the 
building, such as the Great Gallery of Mansart and 
Le Brun, excited amazement rather than interest. 
The art of Louis XIV.'s day seemed to be dead, to- 

[9] 



VERSAILLES 

gether with the institutions that had produced it; 
and a still greater degree of indifference enshrouded 
that charming, graceful, vivid art that had come In 
the eighteenth century to rejuvenate and adorn with 
its woodwork and its bronzes the grave dignity of 
the royal dwellings. 

One boon that our eclectic education has given us 
is that in our day we are able to admire and to under- 
stand with equal insight the principles of the most 
different styles of beauty, and of manifestations of 
creative power which seem to contradict one another. 
With regard to architecture, who would refuse his 
admiration to the Parthenon at Athens, or to the 
church of St. Sophia, or to the great Gothic cathe- 
drals? These, certainly, are works of a superior order 
to Versailles, in virtue of the object for which they 
were built, if for no other reason, seeing that they 
do honour to God, and reveal Him to men. The 
Palace of Louis XIV. testifies only to the power of 
a monarch and of a political regime. But it ex- 
presses this with sufficient clearness and in an artistic 
language of sufficient brilliancy to enable one to 
take pleasure in it, even after having paid intelligent 
homage to works of human genius that are infinitely 
nobler. The Beautiful, it is true, has not the same 
strength here, and does not create the same enjoy- 
ment, but it nevertheless in a certain measure opens 

[10] 




THE PALACE OF VERSAILI 





<'Asrrr 










SIDE FACING THE COURTS 




THE PALACE OF VERSAILLES: SIDE FACING THE COURTS 



J 



IN HISTORY AND ART 

the sluice-gates of enthusiasm. Like other famous 
corners of the earth, Versailles has become, for many 
of our contemporaries, one of the goals of artistic 
pilgrimage. Many talented minds find here a kind 
of moral support; artists of the first rank come hither 
to seek for methods and models, and the poets — and 
this is significant — are again finding inspiration 
here. 

What are the causes, we may ask, of this reversion 
of the popular taste, of which there are so many 
signs? The causes are principally two, of which 
one rests entirely on sentiment, while the other is 
of a more intellectual order. First, then, every one 
can see that one of the least contested beauties of 
Versailles lies in the silence of its great spaces, and 
in the already venerable appearance of its buildings. 
And the more the absence of the rush of modern life 
makes itself felt the greater is the pleasure to be 
derived from invoking the splendours of the past, 
and the easier it is to do so. This invocation of 
the past, which is one of the subtlest pleasures of the 
mind, is within the reach of the humblest of the 
people, and inspires in them a feeling of emotion 
which, unconscious of it though they be, is not with- 
out its element of truth and of nobility. With 
artists, and people of some measure of culture, this 
pleasure attains its highest degree, which is only ex- 

[II] 



VERSAILLES 

perienced by those who have devoted to Versailles, 
not merely the hurried days of the tourist, but the 
prolonged leisure of quiet weeks. 

There are few towns that bring the great revo- 
lutions of history more vividly before us. It seems 
as though the destructive forces that were raging 
for nearly a century, owing to the indifference of 
some and the very deliberate blunders of others, had 
increased the value of such places as have remained 
intact. At every turn the imaginative mind may 
find cause for emotion. A king is visible in the 
apotheosis of the Grand Gallery, in spite of the fact 
that there is nothing left of the marvellous furni- 
ture of silver and enamel that once adorned it. In 
the same way Trianon is filled with the memory of 
a Queen, a memory that will never vanish from the 
little houses of the crumbling hamlet until the day 
when necessity or caprice shall undertake to rebuild 
them. If we are prepared to mistrust the accepted 
myths we may follow the history of three reigns step 
by step, detail by detail, throughout this noble de- 
mesne of Versailles, which is made so complete by 
the Grand Trianon of Louis XIV. and the Petit 
Trianon of Marie Antoinette. The essential por- 
tions of the decorations are still there, while the 
memories of the Grand Steele, and the still more 
exciting and graphic stories of the eighteenth cen- 

[12] 



tv v^^'^ 




HAMLET OF THE PETIT TRIANON : THE QUEEN'S HEAD 



IN HISTORY AND ART 

tury, bring back for us the men and women of the 
past, and make them live again. 

The other cause that has replaced Versailles in 
its old position of honour exists only for really cul- 
tivated minds, but seems no less likely to endure. 
It is only novv^ that any just idea is being formed of the 
place occupied in the history of art by that united 
whole, so complete and yet so imposing in extent, 
that we may name " the Art of Versailles." For a 
long time it was called in question on account of its 
symmetry, its want of spontaneity, its stiff pomposity. 
But the qualities that were taken for intolerable 
faults have changed their names, to suit the altera- 
tion in the point of view of taste. It is now recog- 
nised that the building, as a whole, as well as the 
details that adorn it, show all the merits of balance, 
proportion, and dignity. It is of course allowable 
to prefer other qualities to these; it may be thought 
that they tend to hold creative imagination in check; 
but it is a fact that they represent the essential char- 
acteristics of French art. 

This representative value deserves to be noted 
above all others. It is proportionately similar to 
the value attached to the best French cathedrals of 
the thirteenth century. The seventeenth century, 
which endowed Paris and the provinces with such 
noble monuments — so greatly honoured to-day — 

[■S] 



VERSAILLES 

seems to be epitomised in the dwelling of Louis 
XIV. All the great artists who were his contem- 
poraries collaborated in this work, which aimed at 
the glorification of the national monarchy. Side by 
side with Le Brun, or under his orders, worked archi- 
tects, sculptors, painters, smelters, carvers, and deco- 
rators of all kinds, of whom some had genius, but 
who, considering the influence under which they 
worked, might have done very well with mere techni- 
cal skill. The Palace and its gardens are full of 
their masterpieces. We may regret that the academ- 
ical school, in which the inspiration of our artists 
became congealed later on, should have drawn some 
of the elements of its aesthetic principles from Ver- 
sailles; but it would be more just to ask ourselves 
what would be lacking to the self-expression of the 
French race, and to its legacy of national art, if 
Versailles had disappeared. 

An attentive study of the different parts of Ver- 
sailles will bring to light, beneath that appearance 
of unity that is revealed at the first glance, many 
variations of the style of the seventeenth century, and 
periods that have many points of difference may be 
distinguished in the creations of this long reign, 
which it is too much our custom to criticise as a 
whole. 

The style of the original house, a simple hunting- 

[i6] 



IN HISTORY AND ART 

box of Louis XIII. 's, of which some walls are still 
existing, determined the character of the oldest 
buildings of Louis XIV. The latter are thus closely 
allied to the traditions of the French Renaissance. 
The first palace of the young King, the one to which 
he came to amuse Mademoiselle de la Valliere, the 
one that La Fontaine described poetically in Les 
Amours de Psyche, what was it but one of the 
prettiest chateaux of the Renaissance? The Ver- 
sailles of the celebrated fetes, as it still stood in 1668, 
of which the greater part, indeed, had been built 
by Louis XIII. , showed a style of art that was by 
no means freed from earlier forms. And, by a co- 
incidence, the King's power was not yet as wide- 
spread and as strong as it was destined to become 
through the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle and during 
the following years. 

It was in truth a fairy palace that rose then upon 
the still narrow slope, a palace all brightness and 
colour, with its fagades of red brick, its balconies of 
wrought iron, its high, white chimneys, its pin- 
nacles, and the gilded leads of its pointed roofs. 
Round the new royal dwelling, it is true, there were 
at first no wide steps, nor gushing fountains, nor 
marble figures, and the space where the noble lines 
of the Grand Canal came into being later on was for 
a long time merely a marshy plain. But King Louis 

[17] 



VERSAILLES 

XIV. had the good fortune to find a gardener with 
a sense of grandeur: Andre Le Notre at the very 
first traced out the general design of the gardens 
of the future. The greater number of the shrub- 
beries were cut out of the underwood of Louis 
XIII. 's former hunting-grounds; enormous basins 
were hollowed out in the low-lying places and 
were gradually filled with bubbling water; a little 
later groups of figures in gilded lead were placed 
in the centre of these basins, contrasting strikingly 
with their stone edges as they stood at the borders 
of the copses; an "embroidered flower-bed" of a 
new design was laid out in front of the building, and 
a little orangery completed the picturesque appear- 
ance of the Palace on its southern side by the mingled 
bricks and stone of its arcades. 

This first structure, itself celebrated as a marvel- 
lous creation, was succeeded by a second Versailles, 
and our praise is due to the same architect in both 
cases. It was the architect Le Vau who, without de- 
stroying it, surrounded the little palace by the three 
facades facing the gardens, and so conceived the 
general design of the building that those who came 
after him had merely to develop it. The Grand 
Apartments and the Ambassadors' Staircase were 
begun at this period. It was at this time, too, that 
the first artists of the day initiated the symbolism 

[i8] 



IN HISTORY AND ART 

by which the decoration of Versailles, both in the 
painting and sculpture of the interior and in the 
subjects represented by the principal fountains, was 
a perpetual source of flattery and of allusion to the 
Roi Soleil. Versailles grew with the King's power: 
Louis by this time had vanquished Spain and 
the Empire, and was the conqueror of Franche 
Comte. His favourite palace symbolized his tri- 
umphs. 

Another Versailles — the third already — was the 
work of Mansart. Mansart must yield the first 
place in our remembrance to Le Vau, since his 
superintendence began only in 1678; but his name, 
more than any other, was destined to be associated 
with the new town, on account of the enormous mass 
of buildings that he created there in the course of 
a few years. He began by making the Grand Gal- 
lery, and adding, on the south side of the Palace, 
the first of the two long wings necessary for the ac- 
commodation of the Court. And what was the rea- 
son for these immense alterations, this incredible 
magnificence? The reason was that the fate of the 
youngest of Royal Houses was forcing it to play 
a part for which the little chateau de plaisirs 
formed an unsuitable background. The King, as 
he became more and more engrossed in this work 
of his, wished to make it the central point of his 

[19] 



VERSAILLES 

power, the spot where all Europe should be forced 
to admire the dazzling rays of the royal sun in all 
its brilliancy. 

The installation of the Court and the Govern- 
ment in 1682 is the most important date in the his- 
tory of Versailles. Mansart's plan was then adopted 
in its essential parts, though it was not to be realised 
all at once. After the Grand Stables and the Little 
Stables were built the Grand Offices, — an annexe to 
Versailles, — the north wing, and the new orangery, 
which involved the remodelling of a great part of 
the gardens. The rebuilding of Trianon was also 
Mansart's work, as well as the design of the beauti- 
ful chapel, which was only finished in 1710, five 
years before the death of Louis XIV. The Chapel 
was the last work of the dying reign, which seemed 
as though it would fain end by an act of homage 
to God its unparalleled series of labours devoted to 
the apotheosis of a man. 

This majestic ornament of the " great reign " then, 
did not grow all at once into the building we admire 
in its melancholy solitude. The various palaces of 
Versailles, as revealed to us by prints and old for- 
gotten pictures, were, so to speak, the first attempts, 
the rough drafts, of the final work, corresponding 
to the progress of the royal power. Every part of 
the Palace and the gardens was destroyed in its 

[20] 




THE GREAT GALLERY, OR GALERIE DES GLACES 



IN HISTORY AND ART 

turn, but only to be restored in a more beautiful 
form in accordance with the master's dream, ever 
growing more ambitious. 

The restitution of these vanished conditions of the 
past forms the true history of royal Versailles. This 
history is comparable to that of a living organism, 
which grows and develops in accordance with its 
increasing needs, modifying itself continually in 
order to adapt itself to fresh circumstances. Noth- 
ing is easier than to make this plain by comparing 
with each other the successive plans of the Palace 
and its surroundings during the reign of Louis XIV. 
One can see the spaces widening, the buildings mul- 
tiplying, and the size of everything that disappears 
being increased threefold and fourfold when it is 
replaced. 

Each political period leaves its own special 
mark in the form of some important change in 
the building as a whole. And if, after the death of 
the Grand Roi, tlie external lines seem to change no 
more, the vital principle is no less active, for the 
royal owners of the Palace in the eighteenth century 
altered the interior arrangements to suit their own 
habits and their diminished prestige. Towards the 
end, indeed, the Palace seemed too large in pro- 
portion. 

May we not say that the eighteenth century created 

[23] 



VERSAILLES 

a fourth Versailles? This would be false if we were 
concerned with the structure alone, which remained 
externally the same; but it is true if we consider 
the enormous renovations that took place within 
the Palace. The Salon of Hercules, which recalls 
the name of an excellent architect, Robert de Cotte, 
was built by order of Louis XV. ; and at the end of 
his reign arose the great Opera Hall, one of the finest 
achievements of Gabriel. On the other hand, this 
king destroyed, to suit his personal convenience, 
some very important parts of the old building, the 
Little Gallery, painted by Mignard, and the enor- 
mous Ambassadors' Staircase; he changed and cut 
up the apartments that were formerly Louis XIV. 's 
private rooms, and he modified in accordance with 
the new style all the other apartments of the royal 
family and the Court. This radical transformation 
of Versailles in the eighteenth century was not the 
work of a few years only; the most important parts 
of it were spread over the long reign of Louis XV., 
and to a small extent over that of Louis XVI. In 
fact, the arrangement of the interior of the Palace, 
as it appears to us to-day, is not that of Louis XIV.'s 
time. If the state rooms date for the most part from 
the seventeenth century, all the rest, all that remains 
of the private dwelling of the King, the Queen, 
the Dauphin, and the children of France, pre- 

[24]. 



IN HISTORY AND ART 

sents the appearance that was given to it in the eigh- 
teenth. 

Louis XV. would have liked to destroy all the 
central part of the side that faced the courts in Louis 
XIV.'s building. The architects, indeed, had been 
suffering for a long time from the want of balance 
between the little chateau of brick that had been 
preserved on this side, and the splendid, regal fa- 
cades that faced the park. Mansart had already 
proposed to cover up the entrance by way of the col- 
onnades, if no more. In the eighteenth century a 
plan of general reconstruction was adopted, which 
was necessarily in the Greco-Roman style then so 
fashionable. The partial execution of this project 
produced the unfortunate wing with the pillars, 
called " Gabriel's wing," after Louis XV.'s great 
architect. This is the heavy structure that hides the 
chapel, and was provided with a pendant by the first 
Empire in the form of another pavilion with pillars. 
We must be careful to remember that these wings, 
the effect of which is so bad as one approaches from 
the Paris side, did not appear in the original design. 
They are mere indications, first steps in the entire 
reconstruction of the Palace on a new plan, a plan 
which would no doubt have had a dignity of its own, 
but would have involved the disappearance of the 
oldest parts of the Palace, that graceful " Marble 

[25] 



VERSAILLES 

Court " in white and pink that one is so glad to see 
preserved. 

At this same period the park of Versailles was 
entirely replanted; other alterations were projected, 
and more than one old grove of trees seemed to be 
in danger. As in the case of the Palace the want of 
funds prevented the carrying out of these common- 
place and destructive designs, and it may be that we 
owe the preservation of Louis XIV.'s gardens, as 
well as that of the most ancient parts of the Palace, 
to the Revolution and the transfer of the Govern- 
ment to Paris. 

After the disappearance of the Monarchy, which 
made it a centre of artistic production, the history 
of Versailles has no longer the same attraction. Na- 
poleon, however, who sometimes stayed at the Grand 
Trianon, did not despise the most famous demesne 
of the old regime; he had dreams of making use of it 
and of living there, and he gave orders for a great deal 
of work. Restorations were begun, too, under Louis 
XVIII. , who had a fleeting intention in 1819 of 
returning to the demesne where he had passed his 
youth as Comte de Provence. We shall speak pres- 
ently of the occasion on which King Louis Philippe 
conceived the idea of making use of the finally 
deserted Palace, by devoting it, in the form of a 
museum, " to all the glories of France." This was 

[26] 




ANTEROOM, KNOWN AS THE CEIL DE BCEUF 



IN HISTORY AND ART 

a colossal historical collection, gathered together at 
the King's expense, and designed to give to gen- 
erations to come a representation of the great deeds 
and great men of the nation. 

The inevitable mistakes made in the carrying out 
of this vast design for a museum were compara- 
tively unimportant, since it was possible by the end 
of the nineteenth century to rectify them, and to 
complete this interesting idea, The same cannot be 
said, however, for the destruction that was involved 
within the building by Louis XVIII. 's undertaking: 
the profanations, the useless vandalisms, the unin- 
telligent sacrifice of ancient art, and sometimes its 
preservation in the wrong place! Admirable ex- 
amples of decorative art, scattered through the un- 
used apartments, were mutilated unscrupulously 
and callously dispersed, as the sumptuous furniture 
of the Palace had been during the revolutionary sales. 
This irreparable loss is felt more forcibly every day, 
in proportion to our increasing love and respect for 
the art of the past. 

We feel compelled nowadays to pass a severe 
judgment upon Louis Philippe, and we are hardly 
excusing him when we say that he shared the taste 
of nearly all his contemporaries. He merely put 
in practice the contempt that most people professed 
at that time for eighteenth-century art, with which 

[29] 



VERSAILLES 

the rooms of Versailles were filled. To be just to 
every one, we must remember that this great unin- 
habited palace, in which a king who owed his posi- 
tion to the new democracy could not dream of living, 
would have been devoted, in a utilitarian century, to 
uses that would certainly have been destructive 
and might well have been degrading. If Louis 
Philippe, by destroying too much, injured Ver- 
sailles in a way that we must always deplore, he 
assuredly saved it from worse disasters; he at least 
secured that it should be preserved to the country 
in the only way that was worthy of it — by fulfilling 
the noble functions of a national museum that should 
never change. 

An epoch nearer our own devoted certain parts 
of the chateau, which are not occupied by the 
museum, to uses that were certainly unforeseen for 
Louis XIV.'s Palace. From 1871 to 1878 Versailles 
once more became the seat of the French Govern- 
ment, after the Franco-German War. And in the 
present day, in accordance with the Republican 
Constitution of 1875, the Palace is nominally the 
House of Parliament. This latest role, which we 
only remember nowadays on the occasion of elect- 
ing a President of the Republic, involved consider- 
able rearrangement. Louis XV.'s beautiful Opera 
House, after having been used for the sittings of the 

[30] 



IN HISTORY AND ART 

Assembly of 1871, was reserved for the Senate, who 
have not been seen there for the last twenty years; 
and for the Chamber and meetings of the Congress 
an enormous new hall has been built in one of the 
South Courts. 

Meanwhile the park and the facades of the Palace 
were falling into ruins. Public opinion was roused, 
and as the popular taste was becoming more and 
more in favour of the beauties of Versailles, the State 
decided to carry out important restorations in the 
body of the building. This indispensable under- 
taking, which has restored some of the finest planta- 
tions and some famous effects of water, and has been 
extended as far as the two Trianons, is not yet alto- 
gether completed and is being carried on energeti- 
cally. About three million francs have already been 
spent upon it. 

It appears unlikely that the chateau should 
undergo any notable alterations for many years to 
come. It still lends itself, to a certain extent, to the 
celebration of fetes, which have not been wanting in 
the course of the nineteenth century, though it is true 
that these can only recall by mortifying comparisons 
the brilliancy of those of tlie old regime. But the 
interest of Versailles is concerned with more dig- 
nified matters, and is of permanent educational value. 
Setting aside the historical collections, in which so 

[31] 



VERSAILLES 

many precious memories are gathered together, the 
Palace, its gardens, and its Trianons form a museum 
of decorative art such as can be seen nowhere else 
in the world. This, above everything else, must be 
made plain. We should arrive at this truth more 
easily if we could give life to these beautiful deserted 
rooms by replacing in them a part of the artistic 
furniture of the State. Their wainscotting, which 
is still intact, demands the furniture of our three 
grand styles, which has been so unfortunately scat- 
tered. Every one recognises that there is no place 
where it would show to more advantage, and the re- 
cent installation of a part of the crown tapestry shows 
what an admirable effect would be produced in such 
surroundings by the venerable objects that were there 
in days gone by. 

The real interest of modern Versailles, as it ap- 
pears to us at the beginning of the twentieth century, 
is concerned with the decorative art of France, of 
which we see here some of the most important ex- 
amples; and also with the history of France, thanks 
to the Museum of portraits and scenes in the history 
of the nation, by means of which the life of the past 
is renewed. Nothing can be more interesting than 
to discover, on the walls of Louis XIV.'s great apart- 
ments, the pictures of the time, representing his 
Court and his military campaigns; or to find col- 

[32] 



IN HISTORY AND ART 

lected in Madame de Maintenon's rooms the por- 
traits of the famous men and women of her day; or 
to see, in the rooms of the Dauphin, Louis XV.'s son, 
surrounded by contemporary decorations, the whole 
of the society of the eighteenth century made to live 
again for us on canvas. This is a very fruitful study, 
and several days should be devoted to it. 

Versailles, even half-furnished and bare — nay, 
even mutilated — is nevertheless a splendid page of 
history, always open before the eyes of the nation, 
and comprehensible to every one. But, whatever 
we may do to it, it still remains a huge ruin, and a 
huge tomb. Its animating principle exists no longer, 
and will never return to it in any other form; and 
the magnificence that was admired by two centuries 
is only to be found in isolated parts. Any effort to 
reproduce it, by restorations of a too detailed 
description, are condemned beforehand to failure. 
Who could pretend to reconstruct nowadays (except 
by thought and study) the sumptuous effects of the 
days of the Monarchy? The chimerical hope of 
restoring the past condition of a monument leads, in 
most cases, to its complete destruction. Let us rather 
enjoy what has survived; let us at all costs preserve 
everything that the touch of time has helped to 
beautify; let us respect the harmonious whole that 
it has created ; and let us, by the help of the remains 

l33l 



VERSAILLES 

that are left, guess what the achievement of Louis 
XIV. must have been in its magnificent complete- 
ness. 

The thought which, from the historical point of 
view, must strike every visitor of any education, is 
the same that influences the work that still remains 
to be done; the thought, namely, that Versailles 
ceased to exist as a living work of art in the year 
1789. Nothing could have been more interesting to 
us than to have had it preserved until now exactly as 
the Revolution found it. Indeed all of it that is 
earlier than that date, and has not been degraded by 
restoration, has a special charm for us, and claims 
a degree of respect of which the modern parts are 
unworthy. The latter may be repaired and im- 
proved without scruple; but we must hesitate long 
before we touch those that were conceived in a 
former day, and executed by the hands of experts, 
whose technical processes we have lost. 

The artists of former days preyed upon one an- 
other, by a right conferred on them by their creative 
gift. The incident of the panels of Verberckt re- 
placing, in Louis XV.'s time, those of Du Goulon, 
which were thrown into a barn, recalls the fate of 
Piero della Francesca's frescoes in the rooms of the 
Vatican, where Raphael ruthlessly covered them 
with his own new paintings. In the ages when crea- 

[34] 




Q 
< 



IN HISTORY AND ART 

tive genius was strong the orders of the master for 
whom the artist worked — pope, or king, or power- 
ful noble — were naturally inspired by the constant 
changes in taste; and it was by virtue of sacrifices, 
and often very cruel ones, that art progressed with- 
out becoming stereotyped in conventional forms. Not 
only have we lost this right of replacing one work 
of art by another, but we shall do well if we abstain 
from remaking those that have disappeared. For 
is it possible for us to put before critical eyes any- 
thing better than an imperfect resemblance, denuded 
of all power to recall what is gone? The succes- 
sive restorations of the nineteenth century in his- 
torical buildings changed, in many cases, the style 
of work of their architects, because the actual design 
was lacking. 

So rich is Versailles in every style that art is often 
to be found there in its first bloom and its original 
beauty. Of the many marvels with which it over- 
flowed a large number has entirely disappeared; 
others, which have been touched by modern hands, 
have no longer any value but a symbolic and his- 
torical one; but many, fortunately, remain, and we 
have no reason to think that they are likely to be 
destroyed. The Parterre d'Eau, for example, and 
the bronzes cast by the Kellers, form a harmonious 
whole that seems imperishable. Such objects as 

[37] 



VERSAILLES 

these, left where the hand of their creators placed 
them, are by no means rare at Versailles. They can 
be recognised at once, and one greets them respect- 
fully as they stand among the rest, as faithful and 
venerable witnesses of the past. They will do hon- 
our to the France of the last two centuries as long 
as an artist lives to visit them, and as long as thought- 
ful minds take pleasure in the places where the 
figures of history can be made to live and move. 



[38] 



THE PALACE AND THE APARTMENTS 

^^^^^HE visitor to Versailles would wish to 
m C A find a reliable guide who could explain 
^^^^^ to him in the course of his visit the his- 
tory of the various parts of the demesne, 
and give him accurate and clear information with 
regard to the works of art that have been preserved 
there, and the original arrangement of the different 
places. As there is no such guide it is our object to 
take the place of one, with a view to adding to 
the enjoyment, instruction, and convenience of the 
visitor. 

The Palace is generally approached by the gate 
that opens on the great " Place d'Armes." In this 
square, which was made in the time of Louis XIV., 
three wide avenues converge, f anwise : in the centre 
the Avenue de Paris, to the left the Avenue de St. 
Cloud, and to the right the Avenue de Sceaux. 
These wide spaces were planned when the town 
of Versailles was first originated, when the King 

[39] 



VERSAILLES 

sketched out, in the open, bare country, the design 
of a regular and majestic town, which should be a 
model to all his kingdom. 

tBetween the Avenues are huge buildings known 
as the Grand Stable and the Little Stable, which are 
now used as barracks. They are built in a very 
grand style of architecture, and date from the time 
when the King settled finally at Versailles with his 
Court. They were designed by Mansart, the famous 
architect who gave the structure of Versailles its 
final form. The interior, which is closed to the 
public, is very fine. The Grand Stable to the left, 
with its back to the Palace, was designed for tiie 
horses and coach-houses of the carriages belonging 
to the Court; the Little Stable, to the right, sheltered 
the riding-horses used by the King, the Queen, and 
the Royal Family. There were 2500 horses in the 
two stables and the kennels. 

We pass through the gate, which is the original 
one, and has eight pierced pilasters supporting a 
large lyre and a sun — the emblems of Louis XIV., 
which we shall meet at every step. The stone figures 
upon the guardhouses that flank the gateway are by 
Marsy and Girardon, and represent Victory holding 
up a crown and overpowering a captive; at the feet 
of one is the eagle of the Empire ; at the feet of the 
other is the lion of Spain — symbols of the victories 

[40] 



THE PALACE AND APARTMENTS 

won by Louis XIV. before the time that he came to 
live at Versailles. 

On each side of the great court, which was for- 
merly called the outer court, are large buildings of 
stone and brick, which contained the quarters of the 
four Secretaries of State and their offices. They are 
somewhat overpowered by the size of the statues near 
them, representing the great men of France, which 
were unfortunately placed here in the time of Louis 
Philippe, as well as the great bronze statue of Louis 
XIV., who seems to be welcoming the visitors who 
enter the gates of his palace. The two enormous 
pavilions with pillars and pediments, on which, when 
the museum was organised, were inscribed the words: 
To all the Glories of France, do not date from Louis 
XIV.'s time. The one by which the chapel is partly 
hidden was built at the end of Louis XV.'s reign, and, 
with the wing that is connected with it, formed the 
beginning of that entire reconstruction of these 
facades which was in progress when the design was 
interrupted by the Revolution. The corresponding 
pavilion was only erected, after the same plan, under 
Napoleon I. They occupy the place of older and 
lower wings, which were built of brick and stone, 
like everything that we see from here. 

On the spot where Louis XIV.'s statue stands there 
used to be a semi-circular entrance-gate, separating 

[41] 



VERSAILLES 

the outer court from the inner one, known as the 
Royal Court, into which no carriages might pass ex- 
cept those belonging to people who had " the priv- 
ileges of the Louvre." 

Quite at the back of this court, at the narrowest 
point of the Palace, several steps paved with marble 
led from the bare ground to the little marble court, 
which has unfortunately been restored at too low a 
level. A passage, which was always kept open, 
formerly communicated directly between the marble 
court and the gardens. 

The decorative effect here is charming. With the 
gay colour of the brick is combined the brilliancy of 
the marble columns and the balconies of wrought and 
gilded iron. The laden ornaments which adorn the 
apices of the roofs so richly, the frames of the 
windows, and also the roof of the chapel, were for- 
merly gilded, and gave an extraordinarily dazzling 
effect to the Royal dwelling, which could be seen 
from a great distance glittering in the sunshine. 

The statues placed picturesquely on the balustrades 
of the roofs are the masterpieces of the best sculptors 
of the day, and represent the Four Quarters of the 
Globe, and the Chief Virtues of a King. The dial 
of the old clock is supported by figures of Mars and 
Hercules, by the sculptors Marsy and Girardon. It 
surmounts the raised part of the small central facade 

[42] 



THE PALACE AND APARTMENTS 

which marks the position of Louis XIV.'s room; this 
fagade was rebuilt in his day; the two otiiers, with 
the exception of the decorations, are similar to those 
of the original small chateau of Louis XIII. 

In the Royal Court were the two large entrances 
to the Palace, connected with the two great principal 
staircases; they are recognisable in the three great 
arcades on each side of the court. The one on the 
right led to the grand staircase of the Ambassadors, 
the most important and the handsomest in the Palace, 
which was destroyed by Louis XV. and replaced by 
suites of rooms. Although this masterpiece is very 
well known by means of old engravings, we will not 
speak of it here, since there is not a vestige of it left; 
and we will enter the Palace by the arcades on the 
left, known as the Staircase of Marble or the Queen's 
Staircase. 

The visitor is greeted on the threshold by a portrait 
of Louis XIV., a fine bust of him as a young man, by 
Warin. To the left, on the ground-floor, is the 
entrance to the rooms of the Dauphine and Dauphin, 
where a fine Museum of the eighteenth century has 
lately been installed, to which we shall return. At 
the present moment we must ascend the staircase built 
by Mansart in 1681. In a niche on the landing are 
a group of cupids in gilded lead, supporting an 
escutcheon bearing the King's monogram, with 

[45] 



VERSAILLES 

torches and doves. Above the doors and in the cor- 
responding corners are bas-reliefs of children and 
sphinxes, the gilded metal of which they are made 
being a mixture of lead and tin. The doorway open- 
ing on to the loggia, and the painted views facing it, 
date only from 1701. This staircase always gave 
access to the rooms of the King and Queen. The 
Hall of the King's Guards opens on the loggia men- 
tioned above; the entrance to the Hall of the Queen's 
Guards is to the right, on the landing. 

This magnificent hall, the first room of the Queen's 
suite, was built at the same time as the staircase, and 
is decorated with the same valuable marble; it also 
contains bas-reliefs of gilded metal, and the pictures 
are framed in the same metal. The ceiling was 
painted, by Noel Coypel, with quaint figures, dressed 
in the fashions of the period when this part of the 
Palace was built. The works of art that are gathered 
in this first room are of various dates. Among them 
are pictures of the family of the Grand-Dauphin, 
Louis XIV.'s son, and the Duchesse de Bourgogne, 
wife of Louis XIV.'s grandson and mother of Louis 
XV., a charming portrait by Santerre. The sculp- 
ture comprises some admirable busts of princesses of 
the eighteenth century, including one of Queen 
Marie Antoinette, an official portrait by Leconte. 
This bust stands beside the door, where the Queen's 

[46] 



THE PALACE AND APARTMENTS 

Guards were cut down and left for dead, at the time 
of the invasion of the Palace by the crowd of insur- 
gents, at break of day, on October 6, 1789. 

The crowd, who were seeking the Queen with the 
intention of killing her, did not know the way into 
her rooms, and this closed door was not entered. The 
National Guards were soon on the spot, and lost no 
time in driving the bloodthirsty mob down the marble 
staircase by way of which they had just invaded the 
Palace. It is well known that two of the bodyguard, 
who had defended this staircase, were captured by 
the crowd and had their heads cut off; and theirs 
were the heads that were carried on pikes beside the 
royal carriage, when the King and his family were 
taken back to Paris by the populace on that same day. 

These tragic memories recall the last days passed 
by the French Monarchy at Versailles. We shall 
find other memories of this same day, to which we 
shall return in the proper place. The associations of 
the next salons are of a less melancholy character, for 
they are concerned with the brilliant epoch of the 
three reigns that followed each other amid the 
splendours of Versailles. 

From the Hall of the Guards one passes into the 
Queen's antechamber, a large room where the King 
and Queen were in the habit of taking their meals au 
grand convert, that is to say, in public, among the 

[47] 



VERSAILLES 

members of their Court, who stood round the room 
during the royal repast. These ceremonies attracted 
many people, and every foreigner of distinction was 
eager to attend them; the public were permitted to 
walk through all the rooms, near the windows, but in 
the hall of the grandcouvert they were separated from 
the royal table by a line of Swiss Guards. Any one 
was allowed to walk by in this way, provided he were 
decently dressed; and nothing shows more plainly 
than this custom that the King of France, in spite of 
the absolutism of his power, was always in close com- 
munication with his subjects. 

The walls are covered with pictures of the time of 
Louis XIV., which are cartoons of the tapestry hang- 
ings produced by the royal manufactory of the 
Gobelms, and represent episodes of Louis XIV.'s 
reign. It is intended to replace these cartoons by 
the original tapestries, which were formerly here; 
and this work of renewing the former appearance of 
these apartments has already been begun in the next 
room and in the King's suite, and will restore the 
original harmony between the decoration of the walls 
and that of the ceiling. In this room the ceiling is 
painted by Vignon and is dedicated to Mars : the cen- 
tral panel is an old repliqua of Le Brun's picture 
The Family of Darius at the Feet of Alexander. 

The west room was the great Reception-room of 

[48] 



THE PALACE AND APARTMENTS 

the Queen, who here held her large audiences. The 
ceiling represents Mercury as the beneficent god of 
the Arts and Sciences. The gilded stucco of the 
ceiling was renewed under Louis XVL, as was also 
the panelling of the room. In accordance with the 
plan of restoration that is being followed, three pieces 
of Gobelin tapestry have just been replaced here, 
from the series called "The History of the King": 
the Coronation of Louis XIV.; the Renewal of the 
Alliance with the Swiss Cantons and the Visit of 
Louis XIV. to the Gobelins Manufactory in 1667. 
This last composition shows the workmen, under the 
direction of Charles Le Brun, presenting to the King 
the furniture of chased silver that was then being 
made for Versailles, where it remained for some time. 
The Queen's bedroom, which comes next in order, 
is an admirable specimen and type of the decorative 
art of Louis XV.'s day, though it has unhappily lost, 
through Louis Philippe's depredations, two fine mir- 
rors with carved frames, as well as the panels of 
gilded wood that surrounded them. But we may 
form a mental image of the original rich efifect, with 
the help of the mirror that still survives between the 
windows, the frames of the doors, and the beautiful 
friezes painted by Natoire and De Troy, representing 
respectively " Youth and Virtue presenting two 
Princesses to France " (the birth of Louis XV.'s elder 

[so 



VERSAILLES 

daughters) , and " Glory taking possession of the 
Children of France " (in which the young Dauphin 
figures with his sisters). 

The wood-carvings, which represent the most deli- 
cate floral subjects, are by Jacques Verberckt, the 
most skilful carver of his day, who in 1738 completed 
this rich series for Queen Marie Leczinska. The 
ceiling is of the same date, and in it are fixed four 
paintings in grey by Boucher, representing the four 
principal virtues of Queens: Fidelity, Charity, Pru- 
dence, and Generosity. The eagles at the corners of 
the ceiling were added to represent the Eagle of Aus- 
tria when the Archduchess Marie Antoinette took 
possession of this room as Dauphine of France, soon 
after her marriage. 

This room, the furniture of which, while it was 
always magnificent, was renewed several times to 
keep pace with successive changes of taste, was oc- 
cupied in turn by the Queens of France and, when 
there was no Queen, by the Dauphines. It was used 
by the wife of Louis XIV., Marie Therese of Aus- 
tria, who died in it in 1683, by the Dauphine " of 
Bavaria," the Duchesse de Bourgogne, and Queen 
Marie Leczinska, who used it from 1725 to 1768 and 
died in it. It was finally the bedroom of Marie 
Antoinette, Dauphine and Queen, until 1789. 

It was here that the Queen's toilet took place every 

[52] 



THE PALACE AND APARTMENTS 

morning, in the presence of the ladies of the Court. 
The alcove was separated from the rest of the room 
by a gilt balustrade, and on each side of the bed 
were two doors — still existing — which gave access 
to the private rooms in the royal suite, called the 
Cabinets de la Heine. 

On the morning of October 6, 1789, Marie An- 
toinette was awakened by the cries and threats of the 
huge crowd under her windows, in the garden, and 
soon afterwards heard the noise upon her staircase 
of the invasion of the Palace. She hastily pulled on 
a petticoat, and followed by the woman-of-the-bed- 
chamber who was on duty for the night, she hurriedly 
escaped by the door on the left side of her bed, and 
rushed for safety to the rooms of the King, her hus- 
band, where we shall soon recall the end of this 
dramatic scene. 

Nearly all the princes and princesses of the House 
of France were born in this room. Their birth, in 
accordance with a very ancient rule of etiquette, al- 
ways took place in public, in order that every French- 
man might be secure from doubt as to the birth of his 
future sovereign. This custom, as may well be 
imagined, was extremely unpleasant, and even dan- 
derous, for the mother. On one of these occasions 
Marie Antoinette was surrounded by so many people 
in this room that she was nearly stifled for want of 

[53] 



VERSAILLES 

air. Every chink of the windows was closely stopped 
up, and it was the vigorous Louis XVI. who, with his 
own hands, tore them open to air the room. 

Two portraits of the Queens who occupied this 
room for the longest time are hung upon the wall. 
Nather has depicted Marie Leczinska in 1748, read- 
ing a book of devotion in the familiar attitude that 
was most agreeable to this good and studious prin- 
cess. Marie Antoinette is represented by Madame 
Vigee-Lebrun, in 1787, in the same attitude; but the 
coquettish head-dress and rich garments of the lov- 
able and light-hearted sovereign mark the contrast 
between the natures of these two Queens. 

The view upon which one looks out from the win- 
dows of the Queen's suite gives one a first general 
idea of the beautiful gardens of Versailles; the rooms 
face south; the flower-garden that lies under the 
balcony still shows the original design of Le Notre ; 
beyond it, lower down, is the orangery, then the sheet 
of water called the Piece des Suisses, and on the 
horizon are the dark woods of Satory. 

We should now visit the charming rooms originally 
built for the Duchesse de Bourgogne, rearranged by 
Marie Leczinska, and entirely renewed and re- 
decorated to suit the taste of Marie Antionette. In 
the little salon whose corners are cut off, which is 
known as the meridienne, the carving of the wood- 

[54] 




THE STEPS OF LATONA 



THE PALACE AND APARTMENTS 

work is absolutely perfect. The foliage and rose 
buds grouped upon the panels are similar to the de- 
sign in chased and gilded copper that is fastened 
upon the transparent glass of the two doors. Close 
at hand is the library, painted in gold, yellow, and 
green, which contained the Queen's books — books 
that she did not read, however, for she was re- 
proached by her mother, the Empress Marie Therese, 
for her lack of taste for reading, as showing a trifling 
and frivolous mind. In another library, adjoining the 
little bathroom, one may see the casket of painted silk 
which held the layette presented by the City of Paris 
for the use of the Dauphine born in 1781. 

The great Cabinet de la Reine was the room in 
which the Queen spent the greater part of her days; 
her favourite furniture, her knick-knacks and minia- 
tures, were all here ; it was here that she gave her pri- 
vate audiences and received her own special circle, 
the Duchesse de Polignac and her friends, the Comte 
d'Artois, M. de Bezenval, M. de Coigny, and Count 
Fersen. Later on she arranged that her children 
should come to her here, by a private staircase, in 
order that she might take part in their education. 

In this salon, where so many memories of the 
Queen's happy days come crowding into our minds, 
there is a bust of her in the porcelain called Biscuit 
de Sevres, after Pajou. In the lines and subjects of 

[57] 



VERSAILLES 

the carved panels upon the walls we may see the Em- 
pire style of decoration already fully developed. 
There is here a tastefully arranged niche, entirely 
composed of looking-glasses; and it is said — quite 
wrongly — that Marie Antionette was surprised and 
horrified, on her arrival at Versailles, to see, in the 
angle of this mirrored niche, an ill-omened vision of 
herself, without a head. There is no foundation for 
the story, for the whole scheme of decoration dates 
from the second part of the reign. It is but one of 
many legends which have been given an air of truth 
by modern romantic writers on the history of the un- 
happy Queen. 

We enter now the Salon de la Paix, where we are 
again recalled to the memory of Louis XIV. in the 
most famous and the best preserved part of the 
Palace. This salon opens into the celebrated Galerie 
des Glaces, at the further end of which there is a 
room of the same shape called the Salon de la Guerre. 
The whole of this was built by Mansart, and the 
paintings were the work of Charles Le Brun and 
his pupils between the years 1679 and 1684. On the 
ceiling of the Salon de la Paix are the allegories that 
gave the room its name, and the bronze trophies that 
are fastened to the marble are also of agricultural and 
peaceful subjects. The picture on the mantelpiece 
was added in the eighteenth century. It is by Le- 

[58] 



THE PALACE AND APARTMENTS 

moyne, and represents Louis XV. giving peace to 
France, while he himself is being presented with his 
two first children, the twin daughters who were the 
earnest of future offspring. The salon was then part 
of the suite of the Queen, who gave concerts there, 
in which the performers were the musicians of the 
King's chapel. Later on Marie Antoinette used it as 
a card-room, and it was here that enormous sums 
were lost at lansquenet and other games of chance by 
the nobles and ladies of the Court. The Salon de la 
Paix was at that time separated from the gallery by 
bars of painted wood, the fastenings of which may 
still be seen. 

The great Galerie des Glaces, together with the 
salons are of very great length; the gallery alone is 
73 metres long, by loj wide, by 13 high. It is 
lighted by seventeen large windows in marble 
arcades, to which correspond seventeen imitation 
arcades filled with 306 bevelled mirrors mounted on 
copper frames. These mirrors, which Louis XIV. 
ordered from Venice, were, both on account of their 
size and their number, extremely magnificent for 
that date; they reflected the light dazzlingly, while 
the nearly white marble, contrasting with the col- 
oured marble, completed the marvellous effect. 

Some large mauve pilasters are surmounted by 
capitals in gilded metal of a new style of architecture 

[59] 



VERSAILLES 

invented by Le Brun, in which the fleur-de-lys figures 
together with the sun and the Gallic cock. The 
trophies of gilded metal, and the twelve groups of 
arms in chased copper that are fastened upon the 
marble at the height of the eye, were designed and 
cast by the most skilful artists, and harmonise delight- 
fully with the marbles, with the festoons of gilded 
metal that surround the arcades of the mirrors, and 
with the cornice of gilded stucco that carries on the 
golden effect along the whole magnificent gallery. 

The eye is then attracted towards the paintings of 
the vaulted roof, which is the largest painted surface 
existing in France, recalling, while it surpasses them, 
the most famous specimens of Italy. This immense 
undertaking was carried out by Le Brun, supported 
by the enthusiasm of the King his master, who called 
him his " chief painter." He first made rough draw- 
ings, and then highly finished sketches, of all the sub- 
jects, which were to represent allegorically the his^ 
tory and triumphs of the reign. The King's glory 
had as yet suffered no diminution, and it was the 
climax of the supremacy of France that the painter 
had to represent. The double picture that occupies 
the centre contrasts the magnificence of the powers 
that surrounded France with the moment when the 
King, at the end of his mother's regency, began to 
reign independently. The small compositions tell 

[60] 




THE BASIN OF LATONA 



THE PALACE AND APARTMENTS 

the story of the first part of the reign, till the peace of 
Aix-la-Chapelle; the larger ones represent in alle- 
gorical form the episodes of the period of war up to 
the peace of Nimegue, from 1671 to 1678. Espe- 
cially conspicuous are the preparations for the war 
against Holland, the crossing of the Rhine, the tak- 
ing of Maestricht, and the conquest of Franche 
Comte. Every group and figure has some allegori- 
cal significance, in accordance with the custom of the 
time. For instance, it is easy to understand the 
symbolism of the arches at the end of the gallery, 
where the formation of the coalition against the 
King is contrasted with the destruction of that coali- 
tion by means of his victories. Above the door open- 
ing into the Salon de la Guerre is painted the alliance 
of Germany and Spain with Holland (1672) ; above 
the door of the Salon de la Paix, Holland is seen van- 
quished, separating from her allies (1678). 

If Le Brun had worked more slowly it would have 
been impossible for him to go on painting victories, 
for the glory of the reign soon began to decline. But 
in the meantime the King was everywhere repre- 
sented in his glorious youth, resembling a Roman 
Emperor with his golden armour, purple mantle, and 
bare arms and legs, and always recognisable among 
the gods and goddesses by his splendid brown peruke. 

Le B run's work, indeed, consists entirely of this 

[63] 



VERSAILLES 

superabundance of allusion and symbolism, which 
would very soon become wearisome when once one 
had appreciated its ingenuity. The lasting charm of 
the whole effect is secured by the absolute harmony 
of the decorative scheme, than which it is impossible 
to imagine anything richer. All the various tones of 
gold and copper are blended. ever5rwhere with the 
most brilliant colours. Noble figures, nearly always 
in couples, beautiful only on account of their lines 
and their effects of contrast, live and move in the 
midst of the painted architecture they support. 
Virile caryatides holding up gilded entablatures, 
naked little sprites playing among garlands and 
escutcheons, winged Victories waving flags and hang- 
ing up trophies — this is the kind of fanciful popula- 
tion that is interposed between the spectator and the 
grand allegorical scenes, and prepares his mind to 
understand them. 

It is impossible to form any adequate idea of the 
splendour that this gallery and the salons that sur- 
round it presented in Louis XIV.'s time, unless one 
is able to picture the magnificent furniture that was 
made on purpose for their adornment. Two large 
carpets of a light colour from the Savonnerie covered 
the parquet floor, while the windows were furnished 
with curtains of white damask, embroidered with the 
King's monogram in gold. In the evening the mir- 

[64] 



THE PALACE AND APARTMENTS 

rors reflected the candles of the fourteen crystal and 
silver chandeliers that hung from the ceiling. AH 
the furniture was of enamel and chased silver — tables 
large and small, stools, cressets and girandoles, can- 
delabra and chandeliers — and the numerous orange- 
trees that stood along the marble walls were in mar- 
vellous tubs of chased silver. This collection was 
the work of the most skilful silversmiths, but un- 
happily it was not long in existence, for the misfor- 
tunes of war obliged the King to send all these 
incomparable masterpieces to the Mint to be melted 
down. We can form some idea of them from the old 
pictures and tapestry in which some of them are de- 
picted. The furniture that replaced them was made 
of gilded wood of delicate workmanship, but it also 
has disappeared. 

One's pleasure in this gallery is doubled by the 
view from the windows and balconies. One looks 
straight down the very centre of the gardens. In 
front of the Chateau are the two great basins of the 
Parterre d'Eau with their bronze statues, and beyond 
them the slopes of turf lead the eye to the distant lines 
of the Grand Canal. We have here a foretaste of the 
beauty of the gardens, and of the bronze and marble 
figures that adorn them ever5rwhere. But it is only 
when we see the glittering waters rising high into the 
air from the basins on every side that we understand 

[6s] 



VERSAILLES 

the full signifi'cance of this harmonious scheme. 
That is indeed a magnificent sight! 

We will now leave this great suite of rooms — to 
which we shall return later — and pass on into the 
royal apartments. It is convenient to visit them at 
this point, and it will take us some time to do so, since 
they are associated with all the principal memories 
of the life of the Monarchy. 

The first glass door opens into a large room dec- 
orated with gilded woodwork, which is none other 
than the famous ante-room known as the (Eil-de- 
BcBuf, so often alluded to in chronicles of the de- 
parted Court. This salon takes its name from a 
peculiarity in its construction.. At each- end of the 
roof is a window, of which one is blind, while the 
other overlooks a little yard. They are both of the 
oval shape that French architects call a bull's-eye. 
The room was only built in 1701, before which date 
the space was occupied by two rooms. On the south 
side, there is an ante-room called the Salon des Bass- 
ano, on account of the numerous pictures by the Vene- 
tian master Jacope Bassano that hung above the doors 
and in the panels; on the north is the King's Bed- 
room, which he occupied until the year 1701. 

It was in this first room that Moliere fulfilled the 
functions of valet-de-chambre tapissier to the King, 
for this was the title under which the celebrated 

[66] 




THE GROVE OF THE COLONNADE 



THE PALACE AND APARTMENTS 

comic poet undertook the duty of making Louis 
XIV.'s bed. It was a duty he fulfilled very will- 
ingly, for by its means he was brought near to the 
master's person, and it was an important matter to 
him to be able to entertain the King with his 
comedies. In this way he obtained permission to 
perform his famous comedy Tartufe, of which the 
first Acts were given in an abridged form at Ver- 
sailles, in spite of the opposition of the devout faction. 

In this first bedroom Louis XIV. was operated on 
for fistula on November i8, 1686. This was a notable 
event in the history of the Court, and much admira- 
tion was evoked by the patience with which the King 
bore the whole operation without uttering a word of 
complaint. 

At the present day, the King's room having been 
slightly prolonged, the CEil-de-Bceuf serves it for an 
ante-chamber. The most striking part of the decora- 
tions in this room is its frieze, with its bas-reliefs of 
gilded stucco, which represent children chasing birds, 
taming wild animals, playing with weapons, and 
dancing. This frieze, which is mainly the work of 
Hardy and Van Cleve, is of the most incomparable 
grace and delicacy. The visitor should not forget to 
look up and examine it carefully. It is a good 
example of the special taste of the day, which gave 
to the figures of children an important place in dec- 

[69] 



VERSAILLES 

orative art; a taste which Louis XIV. expressed 
when he desired his painters and sculptors to "put 
childhood everywhere." 

Among the pictures of the royal family that are 
fitted into the panelling is one by Nocret representing 
Louis XIV.'s family in 1670. The object of the 
painter was to depict Olympus, and each individual 
represents a god or goddess. The King appears as 
Apollo crowned with laurels; the Queen-Mother as 
Cybele; the young Queen as Juno; Monsieur as the 
Dawn of Day, under the morning star; and Madame 
(Henrietta of England) as Spring. The Queen of 
England, Madame's mother, represents Iris, holding 
a trident in her hand and presenting the produce of 
the sea; and the Dauphin is depicted as Cupid hold- 
ing a torch. All the princesses of the house of Bour- 
bon have their distinctive attributes, and all the por- 
traits in this curious picture — so characteristic of the 
times — are good likenesses. 

On the chimney-piece stands the finest bust that was 
ever taken of Louis XIV. He is represented in 
armour, with the bearing of a warrior and in the full 
height of his strength. This piece of sculpture is 
signed Coyzevox and dated 1682, and is therefore 
contemporary with the final establishment of the 
Court at Versailles. 

Two narrow doorways open into the first ante- 

[70] 



THE PALACE AND APARTMENTS 

room, which communicates in its turn with the Hall 
of the Guards, the room by which the King's private 
suite is approached. This hall opens upon the 
marble staircase of which we have already spoken. 
The two chimney-pieces of these rooms are preserved 
as they were, but all the rest is modernised and turned 
into part of the Museum. In the ante-chamber the 
table was laid when the King ate his meals publicly 
in his own rooms, and supper and dinner were served 
here cermoniously. Every Monday morning a par- 
ticular table was covered with a green velvet cloth, 
upon which all who had petitions to present came and 
placed them. The King seated himself in an arm- 
chair, received from a secretary a list of these peti- 
tions, inspected the various documents, and with his 
own hand made a note of the minister to which each 
should be sent. 

From the (Eil-de-Baeuf we pass into the room that 
became the King's bedroom in 1701, before which 
date it was a salon. This is the central point of the 
Palace, and in some respects the central point of the 
French Monarchy. All the affairs of the nation con- 
verged in this room, where the ceremonies of the 
King's lever and coucher took place every day, where 
he gave audiences to ambassadors and to the Pope's 
nuncio, and where he dined au petit convert, that is 
to say, alone, on a little square table in front of the 

[71] 



VERSAILLES 

central window. Many historical events are asso- 
ciated with this room, one of the most important being 
the solemn proclamation of the Due d'Anjou, Louis 
XIV.'s grandson, as King of Spain, under the name 
of Philippe V. (November i6, 1700). In the royal 
chamber, too, Louis XV. received the remonstrances 
of the Parliament, and gave all his important audi- 
ences. In Louis XVI. 's time the most famous audi- 
ence was the reception of the Deputies of the States 
General on May 2, 1789. 

And with what interest we recall, as the most im- 
portant of all, the events that took place on September 
I, 1715! This was the day on which Louis XIV. 
died, in a bed that stood on the same spot as the one 
that we see to-day. Four days earlier the King had 
sent for the little Dauphin, who was about to become 
Louis XV., and had said to him: " Do not follow the 
bad example that I have given you in the matter of 
war: I often entered upon it too lightly and continued 
it from vanity. Do not imitate me, but be pacific, and 
let your chief occupation be the relief of your sub- 
jects." The little prince melted into tears, as did all 
who were present. The King gave advice to each, 
and when his courtiers by his wish approached the 
bedside, he thanked them for their faithful services, 
and begged them to remember that union is the 
strength of the State. He said to Madame de Main- 

[72] 




THE GATEWAY OF THE PALACE, AND THE GRAND STABLES 



THE PALACE AND APARTMENTS 

tenon : *' I have always been told that it is difficult to 
die; but I who am on the point of experiencing that 
much-dreaded moment, do not find it difficult." Hav- 
ing seen in the mirrors that two of his pages-of-the- 
bedchamber were in tears, he said to them: "Why 
are you crying? Did you think that I was immor- 
tal? " After twenty days of illness he died at the age 
of seventy-seven, having given a fine example of 
Christian courage and repentance, at the end of a life 
that had not always been edifying. 

The decorations of the room are very much as they 
were at the time of Louis XIV.'s death: the mirrors, 
the woodwork, the large bas-relief representing 
France seated on a pile of arms with figures of Fame 
on each side of her, and the bar of gilded wood that 
enclosed the King's alcove, are all old, and in their 
original places. The same cannot be said for the fur- 
niture, which is in the style of Louis XIV.'s time, but 
is not the same that was formerly in the room. The 
bed, notably, was remade in Louis Philippe's day, 
with fragments of tapestry taken from an old bed of 
the King's. The State-counterpane of lace is also of 
royal origin. It was made about the year 1670, and 
the pattern includes the monograms of the King and 
of Queen Marie Therese, as well as the shields of all 
the families allied with the House of France. This 
is one of the largest pieces of lace in existence. It is 

[75] 



VERSAILLES 

wrongly said to be the work of the young ladles at 
Saint-Cyr, but that school did not exist when this 
marvellous piece of French lace was made. 

Among the works of art in this room two portraits 
claim our attention: the marble bust by Coyzevox of 
the young Duchesse de Bourgogne, from whose grace 
and charm was derived the happiness of the last years 
of Louis XIV., and the profile in wax of the King 
himself at the age of sixty-eight years, by Antoine 
Benoit. This celebrated worker in wax was in 
possession of one of his Majesty's own perukes. He 
has strikingly shown the haughty and imperious char- 
acter of the monarch, while accentuating the effects 
of age. Our only means of forming any complete 
idea of the King is to compare the realism of this 
old man's head with the idealised portrait carved 
by Coyzevox in marble, which we saw in another 
room. 

Louis XV. occupied this room, like his great grand- 
father, until the year 1738. As it was a difficult room 
to heat, and the King was apt to catch cold in it, he 
had a smaller and more convenient room made be- 
yond it for him to sleep in. But every night he lay 
down in the State bed and went through all the eti- 
quette of the coucher; then, when the last courtier had 
retired, he left the room in a dressing-gown, by the 
door on the right side of the bed, and proceeded to 

[76] 



THE PALACE AND APARTMENTS 

his real bedroom. He returned in the morning and 
lay down again in the bed, where the ceremony of the 
lever took place, followed by that of the toilet. This 
fantastic ceremonial was kept up by Louis XVI. 

No one was allowed to pass the balustrade of the 
royal alcove; a valet de chambre of the Inner Rooms 
guarded the bed all day. When the ladies of the 
Court, and even the Princess of the Blood, entered 
the King's chambers, they made a deep curtsey before 
his Majesty's bed. 

Those who are interested in the memories of the 
French Revolution will look with emotion upon the 
balcony of the King's room. On October 6, 1789, 
when the people of Paris invaded the Palace, and 
crowded, with threats, and with arms in their hands, 
into the Marble Court beneath the windows of the 
royal apartments, some of the courtiers were stationed 
here, with General Lafayette. The latter went to 
fetch the King, and showed him, on this balcony, to 
the people. Then, in her turn, the Queen was de- 
manded by the populace, who were clamouring for 
her death. She appeared with her two children ; but 
the crowd cried " No children! " and with a gesture 
full of dignity and courage Marie Antoinette put her 
two children behind her, and turned to face the 
muskets that were pointed at her, certain that her last 
hour had come. Her courageous bearing impressed 



VERSAILLES 

the insurgents, who, with one of those sudden changes 
characteristic of French crowds, always ready to 
respond to bravery, cried: ^^ Five le Roil Five la 
Reine! Let us take them to Paris!" Louis XVI. 
was then obliged to promise to go off with his people 
at once. Preparations were hastily made, and a few 
hours afterwards the royal family, with the mob sur- 
rounding their carriages, went on their way to Paris 
along the avenue that is opposite to the Palace, to 
which they were fated never to return. 

Next to the King's bedroom, in all the royal 
chateaux, was the room known as the King's Cabinet, 
or the Cabinet of the Council. At Versailles the 
Cabinet covers the space occupied by Louis XIV.'s 
former Cabinet and by his peruke-room, which used 
to be filled with a quantity of wigs, from among 
which the King chose one every day. Louis XV. 
made the existing King's Cabinet, in which large 
panels in the grand style surround a very beautiful 
mirror and a red marble chimney-piece ornamented 
with bronzes, one of the most remarkable in the 
Palace. The whole dates from 1755, and the wood- 
carving is by the decorative artist Rousseau, whose 
principal work this is. The carvings represent the 
attributes of royalty, the sceptre, and the "hand of 
justice," and the children personify War, Peace and 
Commerce. These symbols recall the fact that the 

[78] 




THE NORTHERN PARTERRE AND THE CHAPEL 



THE PALACE AND APARTMENTS 

King dealt with all the affairs of the kingdom in this 
place, for here he worked every day with one of his 
ministers, and here he held his Council. It was here 
that, during three reigns, the fate of all France was 
decided, and, to a certain extent, the fate of Europe 
as well. 

Memories that are less important, though not less 
interesting from the point of view of descriptive his- 
tory, are connected with the King's Cabinet. It was 
here that he gave special audiences, and received 
ladies who came to be presented to him. A lady 
could not be admitted to the Court, or received in the 
King's carriages, until she had been presented. She 
would arrive at the Palace in a splendid equipage and 
in full dress, and would ascend the marble staircase 
accompanied by the lady who was to present her and 
escorted by a number, more or less large, of her 
friends; she would pass through the hall of the 
guards, the first ante-room, the (Eil-de-Bcsuf, and the 
King's room; then, on the threshold of the Cabinet, 
she would make her first curtsey to the King. At the 
third curtsey the King would sometimes speak to the 
lady who was being presented; and there was always 
a large number of courtiers who had the curiosity to 
be present at these agitating presentations. The most 
celebrated of these was the presentation of Madame 
du Barry in 1769; never had the ante-rooms and the 

[81] 



VERSAILLES 

Cabinets been filled with so many curious spectators, 
and never had a prettier woman been presented, nor 
one who wore more magnificent ornaments, for on 
the previous day the King had sent her a hundred 
thousand pounds' worth of diamonds. 

The door of looking-glass that opened into the 
Grand Gallery was always kept closely shut; it was 
never opened except for the King to pass through 
from his private apartments to the chapel, on cere- 
monious occasions. The door of his private apart- 
ments or cabinets is opposite the chimney-piece, and 
leads into rooms not open to the public, all of which 
were built and decorated for King Louis XV. The 
first is the bedroom that he occupied, as we have seen, 
after the year 1738. 

The alcove was surrounded by a gilded balustrade, 
and opened into a charming cabinet de garde robe, 
which has been preserved. On the walls of this 
alcove there have lately been hung three pieces of 
Gobelin tapestry from the precious series with the 
golden background, which represents the story of 
Don Quixote, and is in the same decorative style as 
the rooms. The original decorations above the doors 
have been replaced by portraits of the daughters of 
Louis XV., the Princesses Elizabeth, Henrietta, and 
Adelaide. 

It was in this room, too, on May 10, 1774, that 

[82] 



THE PALACE AND APARTMENTS 

Louis XV. died. A few days earlier he had been 
brought back, ill, from Trianon. Contrary to his 
habits he had followed the hunt in a carriage, and in 
the evening he complained to Madame du Barry of 
feeling very unwell. The royal family insisted upon 
his returning to Versailles, and three days later it be- 
came evident that he was suffering from small-pox. 
It was the most terrible scourge of the day; 
" Madame Infante," Louis XV.'s eldest daughter, 
had died of it; and upon her arrival in France, 
Madame, wife of the Comte de Provence, had been 
attacked by it, though the nature of her illness had 
been hidden from the King in the fear of alarming 
him. On May 3, as Louis XV. was examining his 
hands, he cried out: " It is small-pox! Yes — it is 
small-pox! " No one answered him, but he was well 
aware of the truth. When, in the evening, Madame 
du Barry came to see him, he said to her that she must 
go away, for fear of making a scandal. As the 
Comtesse left the room she fainted away. The fa- 
vourite went to the Duchesse d'Aiguillon at Rueil, 
where she was kept informed of the invalid's condi- 
tion, which every day became more serious. On 
May 7, Louis asked for his confessor; and two days 
later he received Extreme Unction. 

He had been laid upon his camp-bed. Surpliced 
priests, holding lighted tapers, surrounded his bed 

[83] 



VERSAILLES 

upon their knees. The King's mouth was open, and 
he was breathing heavily; his features were swollen 
and seemed almost black; he was stifling. The many 
people who were present stood round, and listened in 
consternation to the prayers of the Bishop of Senlis; 
from time to time a chaplain held up a great crucifix 
before the dying man's eyes. In the next room the 
ministers could be heard carrying on a discussion with 
great bitterness, while the people without were 
crowding into the Marble Court to hear the proc- 
lamation of the King's death. It was not until the 
next day, however — Saturday, May lo — that he 
breathed his last after a terrible death-agony, at three 
o'clock in the afternoon. The moment that the 
monarch's eyes were closed the Due de Bouillon, the 
Grand Chamberlain, advanced to the barrier that 
divided the CEil-de-Bceuf in two, and said to the 
waiting courtiers: " Gentlemen, the King is dead! " 
This was also the bedroom of Louis XVI. Of the 
incidents of this period we will recall only one — one 
that appeals especially to our emotions. The whole 
royal family gathered here on the tragic morning of 
October 6. The King was surrounded by the Comte 
and Comtesse de Provence, the Comte and Comtesse 
d'Artois, Madame Elizabeth, and the Queen, who 
had come hither by way of the private passages, 
Madame de Tourzel, the governess of the children of 

[84] 






THE CHAPEL 



THE PALACE AND APARTMENTS 

France, had hastily brought the Dauphin, with his 
sister Madame Royale. Here is the window from 
behind whose curtains the Queen watched, during 
long hours, the threatening movements of the crowd 
in the Marble Court, while she stroked the Dauphin's 
fair hair; for the child, having been taken from his 
bed without breakfast, and understanding nothing of 
what was taking place was continuously murmuring: 
" Mamma, I am hungry! " And here is the door of 
the Council Room, through which Lafayette entered 
when he came to fetch their Majesties, first one and 
then the other, to show them to the people from the 
balcony of which we have already spoken, and which 
is visible from here. 

The Salon de la Pendule, into which we now pass, 
is the first room in the King's private suite, and takes 
its name from the clock by Passemant and Dauthiau, 
which is a masterpiece of mechanism and of the 
clockmaker's art. The bronzes are signed by 
Caffieri, the great artist in this genre of whom this 
is perhaps the most important production, and who 
may be so thoroughly studied in London through his 
works in the Wallace collection. The style harmon- 
ises with the ornamentation of the mirrors and of the 
woodwork, which is by Verberckt. The other works 
of art in this room are a bust of Louis XV. as a child 
by Coyzevox, and a bronze model by Bouchardon of 

[87] 



VERSAILLES 

an equestrian statue of Louis XV., which once stood 
in the square in Paris now known as the Place de la 
Concorde, but formerly called the Place Louis XV. 
This famous statue was destroyed during the Revolu- 
tion. 

On five tables of stucco, supported by brackets of 
carved wood, are depicted scenes in the Grand Park 
of Versailles, and in the forests of Marly, St. Ger- 
main, Compiegne and Fontainebleau. It was on 
these tables that Louis XV. and Louis XVI. gave to 
the Master of the Royal Hounds and his lieutenant 
their instructions with regard to the chase. 

The memory of the royal hunting expeditions is 
also associated with the next room, which is called 
the Cabinet des Chiens. The friezes of stucco round 
the ceiling represent scenes in the hunting of the stag 
and the wild boar. The King kept his favourite dogs 
here in special niches. This room served as an ante- 
chamber to the entrance to the little staircase. This 
staircase is protected by a wrought-iron railing with 
the King's monogram, and leads to the small suite of 
rooms formerly used by Louis XV., including his 
library, his workshop, his small kitchens and his still- 
room. A part of this suite was arranged for the ac- 
commodation, near the King, of his last favourite, 
Madame la Comtesse du Barry. 

It was by this staircase that the King left his rooms 

[88] 



THE PALACE AND APARTMENTS 

every day when he went out. On January 5, 1757, 
he had just descended these stairs and was on the point 
of stepping into his carriage at the corner of the 
Royal Court, when he was struck with a dagger by 
the murderer Damiens. The King, who thought his 
wound was mortal, was carried up the same staircase 
to his room, surrounded by his agitated courtiers. 

The Cabinet des Chiens opens into Louis XV.'s 
dining-hall, which was also that of Louis XVI., and 
was sometimes used for intimate gatherings of the 
royal family. 

The eight pictures on Sevres porcelain, which have 
been brought back to the place they formerly oc- 
cupied, represent scenes from the hunts of Louis 
XVL, and are similar in design to the great composi- 
tions of Oudry, which were carried out in Gobelin 
tapestry, and depicted the hunts of Louis XV. This 
is the most valuable collection in existence of pictures 
painted at Sevres. The French windows open on a 
balcony that encircles the Cour des Cerfs. This in- 
ner court, so called on account of the stags' heads in 
plaster with which it was formerly decorated, was 
connected with all the rooms of the King's suite, and 
was overlooked by no others. 

The Salon at the corner of the Marble Court and 
the Royal Court was the King's private sitting-room. 
The carvings here are in the best style of the period 

[89] 



VERSAILLES 

of Louis XV. From the balcony the King watched 
the funeral procession of Madame de Pompadour 
disappearing along the Avenue de Paris, on April 
1 6, 1764. It was nearly dark, and the weather was 
extremely bad; but the King stood bareheaded in the 
storm until the last torches of the procession had 
vanished. It has been recorded by eye-witnesses that 
his eyes were overflowing with tears, and he said to 
those who were with him: " Alas! I have lost one 
who has been my friend for twenty years, and this is 
the only mark of respect that I can pay her!" This 
well-authenticated saying is very different from the 
heartless words put into the King's mouth by various 
imaginative historians, and too often repeated. 

One of the most important scenes in the celebrated 
aflfair of the necklace, in Louis XVI.'s reign, was en- 
acted here. On August 15, 1785, the King and 
Queen summoned the Cardinal de Rohan to appear 
before them, at the very moment when, as Grand 
Almoner of France, he was about to celebrate at Ver- 
sailles the solemn festival of the Assumption. He 
was accused of having made use of the Queen's signa- 
ture as a means of obtaining the diamond necklace. 
As a matter of fact, he had been duped by Madame 
de La Motte, who had taken advantage of his 
credulity to use him as her tool, and had appropriated 
the jewel herself. As Marie Antoinette, who de- 

[90] 




■■'^*«# 



\¥^ 



THE " DYING GAUL' 



THE PALACE AND APARTMENTS 

tested the cardinal, had no doubt of his guilt, she 
attacked him with terrible violence in the King's 
presence; and the cardinal, who was alarmed, and, 
moreover, understood nothing of the matter, for he 
imagined he had been acting on a secret order from 
the Queen, did not know what to answer. The King 
promptly gave orders for his arrest to the captain of 
the guard, and as he left the royal apartments he was 
taken prisoner in his pontifical robes in the presence 
of the Court, which had assembled for the ceremony, 
and was led under a strong guard to the Bastille. 
This was the beginning of the famous scandal. 
Marie Antoinette was as innocent in the affair as the 
cardinal, but none the less the disgrace of it fell upon 
the unfortunate Queen. 

Beyond this room, in a part of the Palace that is 
not open to the public, are the rooms of Madame 
Adelaide, which the King had had made near his 
own, on account of his affectionate and fatherly feel- 
ing for the most intelligent of the daughters who re- 
mained to him. One of the rooms was turned into a 
library for Louis XVI. In another there are some 
extremely rich bas-reliefs representing symbols of 
the chase and of the art of fishing, and groups of 
musical instruments. This is still called Madame 
Adelaide's music-room. 

After having been brought thus closely in touch 

[93] 



VERSAILLES 

with the memories of the eighteenth century, we re- 
turn to the Galerie des Glaces, and entering the Salon 
de la Guerre, we find ourselves once more surrounded 
by the splendour of Louis XIV.'s Court. 

The Salon de la Guerre was built at the same time 
as the Gallery, and is decorated with paintings by 
Charles Le Brun, the King's Chief Painter. On the 
ceiling France is represented surrounded by figures 
of Victory bearing laurels, of supporting tablets in- 
scribed with the triumphs of Turenne over the Ger- 
mans. The subjects of the four divisions of the roof 
are Germany, Holland, and Spain — all vanquished 
— and the goddess Bellona in wrath. The large bas- 
relief on the mantel-piece represents the King on 
horseback, after a victory. It is by Coyzevox, and is 
made of stucco; for though it was intended to repro- 
duce it in marble the design was never carried out. 
The bronze trophies fastened upon the marble are as 
remarkable as those in the Gallery and in the Salon 
de la Paix. Six busts of Roman emperors in col- 
oured marble, with heads of porphyry, stand upon 
pedestals, which are also coloured. These are the 
busts of Italian workmanship that were bequeathed 
by Cardinal Mazarin to Louis XIV. 

The King's State Apartments begin here. In these 
Louis XIV. gathered together, on certain days, the 
brilliant Court described in the letters of Madame 

[94] 



THE PALACE AND APARTMENTS 

de Sevigne and in the memoirs of the time. There 
were rooms devoted to music,, to dancing, to card- 
playing, and to refreshment. These rooms are still 
decorated with the magnificent marbles originally 
placed in them, and they also have the doors of carved 
and gilded wood that were made by the first wood- 
carver of the family of Caffieri. 

Each room was dedicated to one of the planets, in 
allusion to the King's emblem, the Sun, which we 
may see at every turn, both painted and carved. The 
fine, well-preserved ceilings, with their compart- 
ments of gilded stucco in the Italian style, represent, 
in each salon, the planet to which it is dedicated. 
The first, painted by Delafosse, is that of the Hall of 
Apollo, and the god of light is surrounded by the 
seasons and the twelve months of the year. It is in- 
tended to replace the old tapestries forming part of 
the series woven at the manufactory of the Gobelins, 
and called the History of King Louis XIV., a process 
of restitution that has happily been already begun in 
the next salon, enabling us to see the original decora- 
tion of these rooms, which were formerly hung 
with the most beautiful tapestry belonging to the 
Crown. 

The tapestry that has been restored to the Hall of 
Mercury represents episodes in the campaign of 
Louis XIV. in Flanders, after paintings by Le Brun 

[95] 



VERSAILLES 

and Van der Meulen. The ceiling, painted by J. B. 
de Champaigne, depicts Mercury in a car drawn by 
two cocks, surrounded by the figures of Vigilance, 
Skill, Science, Industry, and Music. Here, as in the 
Gallery, there was some magnificent furniture of sil- 
ver; and as the room contained a State bed, there was 
a silver balustrade surrounding it, of which the cost 
was a hundred and forty thousand livres. 

The Hall of Mars, of which the central part of the 
ceiling is by Audran, was sometimes used as a ball- 
room, and sometimes as a cardroom. For a long 
time there were, to the right and left of the mantel- 
piece, two seats of marble, upon which sat the musi- 
cians who used to play the airs of Lulli, Couperin, or 
Rameau, at the Court dances. 

In the Hall of Diana there was a large billiard- 
table, which was used on the days of the grand ap- 
partement, or great receptions. This was a game 
that Louis XIV. enjoyed very much, because he 
played it well. The ladies watched the game seated 
on platforms covered with Persian carpet. There 
were four silver tubs containing orange-trees, and 
four large silver chandeliers hung from the ceiling. 
The painting on this ceiling is by Blanchard, and 
represents Diana surrounded by Slumber and 
Dreams. The whole hall is faced with marble, with 
large ornaments of chased and gilded copper. 

[96] 




THE SALON OF PEACE 



THE PALACE AND APARTMENTS 

The portraits of Louis XIV. by Riguad, and of his 
wife Marie Therese by Beaubrun, are sunk into the 
decoration of the room ; but the most important work 
of art is tlie bust of Louis XIV. as a young man, which 
was done by the Cavalier Bernini, at the time when 
the famous Italian artist was staying at the Court of 
France, where he was received with every mark of 
honour. This bust, although of skilful workman- 
ship, is nevertheless very inferior to the French busts 
of the same period. 

In the Hall of Venus, as in the preceding room, the 
mural decoration and the marbles of the time of 
Louis XIV. have been preserved intact. The paint- 
ing, moreover, is so arranged as to give the effect of 
carrying on the lines of the architecture. On the 
ceiling, by Houasse, we see Venus crowned by the 
Graces, and receiving from Vulcan the arms that she 
bade him forge for her. In the niche there is still 
standing the statue that was originally ordered to fill 
it, in which Warin has represented Louis XIV. as a 
Roman Emperor. 

The whole hall is panelled with great mosaics com- 
posed of the most beautiful marbles, and it is notice- 
able that the workmanship in these was of so high an 
order that there are no cracks between the pieces, 
after about two centuries and a half. Especial care 
was devoted to the appearance of this hall, which for- 

[99] 

LOfC. 



VERSAILLES 

merly, by one of the doors at the end, opened upon 
the Ambassadors' Staircase, the principal approach 
to the Palace. 

In the Hall of Abundance there is nothing remark- 
able but the ceiling, on which is painted the Abund- 
ance or Splendour of royalty. On the painted balus- 
trade are depicted various vases and objects of value 
formerly belonging to the King. They formed part 
of the collection of curiosities that was kept in the 
room close at hand. This room was altered in Louis 
XV.'s time, and now contains nothing but an inter- 
esting series of military drawings by Van Blaren- 
berghe. 

Another door opens, and we find ourselves in a 
huge hall, lighted by six large windows, and entirely 
panelled with marble and decorated with gilded 
carvings of great power. The enormous marble 
chimney-piece by Autin is loaded with bronzes, in 
the middle of which is a head of Hercules, covered 
with the lion's skin. We are in the famous Hall of 
Hercules, and the ceiling, which measures i8 metres 
50, by 17 metres, represents the apotheosis of Her- 
cules and his reception among the gods of Olympus. 
This painting, which is the work of Louis XV.'s first 
painter Lemoyne, and is his masterpiece, was com- 
pleted in the six years between 1729 and 1736. It is 
the largest surface that has ever been covered by a 

[ 100] 



THE PALACE AND APARTMENTS 

single composition in France. It is said that the 
painter was greatly complimented by the King and 
Court when his work, so long hidden by scaffolding, 
was disclosed to view; but his expenses in colours 
and accessories had been so high that the honorarium 
of ten thousand ecus did not cover them. He had 
spent twenty-four thousand francs in ultramarine 
alone! The unfortunate artist, not daring to put for- 
ward any claim, killed himself in despair. 

In the Hall of Hercules there are now two pictures 
other than those that were originally placed there; a 
portrait by Mignard above the chimney-piece, of 
Louis XIV. on horseback; and facing it The Cross- 
ing of the Rhine, an old design for Gobelin tapestry 
copied in the time of Louis Philippe, which is very 
effective in its present position. But we cannot help 
deploring the loss of the picture that was formerly 
here, the Feast at the House of Simon the Pharisee, 
by Paul Veronese, which is now in the Salon Carre 
in the Louvre. For this great picture, presented to 
Louis XIV. by the Republic of Venice, the carver 
Vasse made the large carved frame that is still to be 
seen. 

This room, which was the State ballroom of Louis 
XV.'s Court, was last used as a theatre when the 
Emperor and Empress of Russia stayed here for a 
day in 1896. The style of its architecture is that of 

[ lOI ] 



VERSAILLES 

Louis XIV.'s time, in spite of the fact that it was 
built at a later date. As in Mansart's day, marble is 
the principal material used for decoration; but this 
was the last time that it was employed at Versailles 
in large quantities. 

There is a very striking contrast between this hall 
and the large room that is next to it, which is very 
sober in its dignity, and is remarkable for its unique 
combination of white stone with the gold of the dec- 
orated doors. This unexpected simplicity fills the 
mind with serious thoughts, and prepares it for the 
chastened magnificence of the chapel. Upon the 
central doors, the leaves of which are richly orna- 
mented with the royal monogram, and lily branches, 
and the arms of France, are locks which are real 
triumphs in the art of chasing. When the leaves of 
this door are opened, giving access to the royal gal- 
lery, the eye is dazzled by the shining depths of the 
white nave. 

The chapel is built in two stories. On the ground- 
floor, which is covered with a pavement of rich 
marble mosaic, square piers support a row of arches, 
above which are the great bays of the galleries, 
marked by fluted columns supporting the roof. A 
banister of violet marble, resting on a gilt railing, en- 
circles all the galleries. Through the large win- 
dows, whose white panes are merely framed in 

[102] 




THE WALK OF CERES 



THE PALACE AND APARTMENTS 

coloured glass, the whole of this fabric of white stone 
is flooded with light. 

The paintings of the vaulted roof are all in fresco. 
In the centre Antoine Coypel has depicted the Eter- 
nal Father in His Glory, surrounded by groups of 
angels carrying the instruments of the Passion. It is 
an unfortunate imitation of the most overloaded ceil- 
ings in the churches of the Italian decadence. Jou- 
venet, in his Descent of the Holy Ghost, above the 
King's Gallery, and Delafosse, who has filled the 
apse with a Resurrection of Jesus Christ, are less 
obtrusive. The other paintings are not worth men- 
tioning, especially as we cannot give too much ad- 
miration to the decorative sculpture, which is a real 
triumph of French art. 

Everywhere there are bas-reliefs of angels, of 
trophies, of graceful and ingenious symbols relating 
to religious subjects, covering the whole surface of 
the stone in a wealth of happy design. All the sculp- 
tors of the day, notably Van-Cleve and the two 
brothers Coustou, contributed to this scheme of deco- 
ration, which is unique on account of its extent as 
well as of its perfection. Every ornament in the 
chapel should be studied in detail. It will be ob- 
served, by the way, that the royal fleur-de-lys was 
nearly everywhere defaced during the revolutionary 
periods. 

[105] 



VERSAILLES 

This building, the most beautiful and harmonious 
church of its day, arose between the years 1699 and 
1710, in accordance with the designs of Mansart, and 
under the superintendence of his brother-in-law and 
successor, Robert de Cotte. It was the last addition 
to the Versailles of Louis XIV. In 171 5, five years 
after it was opened, was celebrated the solemn funeral 
service of the monarch whom France, in the days of 
his triumphs, had named the Grand Rot. 

The large gallery was reserved for the King and 
the royal family. Louis XIV. and Madame de 
Maintenon occupied the corners of this gallery, 
where, the better to carry on their devotions, they 
were isolated in a niche with a grating of gilded 
wood. The rest of the Court sat in the side galleries, 
and the King's Choir, both instrumentalists and sing- 
ers^ were all together in the organ-loft. On the days 
of solemn festivals the King heard mass at the foot of 
the altar, on a throne prepared for the purpose. 

The funeral services of all the princes and prin- 
cesses of the House of France were celebrated in this 
chapel until the year 1789, as were also all the mar- 
riages of the royal family, and all those in which the 
King and Queen honoured the bride and bridegroom 
by signing the register. Among the royal marriages 
we may here picture the one that took place in 1770, 
between Louis, Dauphin of France, and Marie Antoi- 

[106] 



THE PALACE AND APARTMENTS 

nette, Archduchess of Austria, which was celebrated 
with unparalleled splendour. Neither of them, how- 
ever, was brought here for the rites of burial, for they 
were buried in tlie common trench in Paris, in the 
Cemetery of the Madeleine, after suffering upon the 
scaffold. 

The long stone gallery, containing casts of busts 
and historical tombs, leads to the rooms of the modern 
Museum. Before the Revolution there were doors 
opening into it from the fine suites of rooms inhabited 
by the Court, the windows of which looked over the 
gardens. The King and his Court followed this gal- 
lery to the end of the wings in order to reach the 
Palace theatre. This great hall, which did not exist 
in Louis XIV.'s day, was built by Gabriel between 
the years 1753 and 1770. It was a long and difficult 
work, and was barely finished in time for the festivi- 
ties connected with the wedding of the Dauphin, 
afterwards Louis XVI. It is the most beautiful 
theatre imaginable, with its happy proportions, its 
rich ornamentation, and the bas-reliefs placed by 
Pajou along the boxes and on the walls of the foyer. 
The woodwork here was formerly painted to imitate 
verd-antique, which harmonised with the blue vel- 
vet of the hangings. In the time of Louis Philippe 
it was all repainted in a reddish colour, and the 
establishment here of the National Assembly in 1871 

[107] 



VERSAILLES 

completed the disfigurement of this marvel of French 
architecture. Although now devoted to the use of 
the French Senate it is still worthy of a visit, for it 
was the keystone of the old life of the Court of 
France, in which the theatre, and more especially the 
opera, filled so large a place. 

If the visitor desires to seek out the other memories 
that are associated with the old rooms, there is 
nothing left for him to see but those of the ground 
floor, the suites formerly used, in Louis XV.'s time, 
by the Dauphin and Dauphine, and now occupied by 
the Museum. We shall find these memories here 
and there as we examine the various works of art con- 
tained in the Museum; but these rooms have not, like 
those of the first floor, kept the actual appearance of 
their original state, having been too much disfigured 
in the days of Louis Philippe. 



[ io8 J 



THE MUSEUM OF FRENCH HISTORY 

^ly^HEN the Revolution of 1789 broke out, 
^ ■ ^ half the population of the town of Ver- 
\M^f sailles disappeared as though by magic; 
all who were connected with the Court had 
followed the King to Paris, or had emigrated to va- 
rious foreign countries. The tradesmen who supplied 
the Chateau were ruined, and the town was threatened 
with the removal from the Palace of all the works of 
art that adorned it. Soon, in 1793, the sale of the 
royal effects took place, and throughout a whole year 
the vast rooms of the Palace were transformed into 
shops, for the disposal of the furniture, china, jewels, 
and objects of every description, with which Ver- 
sailles and the royal dwellings of the neighbourhood 
were equipped. It was at that time that various 
merchants and foreign collectors became possessed, 
for next to nothing, of admirable specimens of the 
royal furniture of France, of which a great number 
are to be found in England. 

[109] 



VERSAILLES 

There was a risk of the Palace being included in 
the general sale of the ancient possessions of the 
French Crown, in which case the demesne would 
have been divided and destroyed forever. Owing to 
the good offices of certain intelligent men Versailles 
was preserved for the nation, and the government of 
the Directory began to establish a museum of pictures 
of the French School in the State apartments. Dur- 
ing the Consulate the old apartments in the wings 
were turned into an annexe to the Hotel des In- 
valides, and were inhabited by hundreds of veterans, 
to the great detriment of the Palace. As for the gar- 
dens, they went altogether to ruin. Napoleon re- 
paired the water-conduits, and not only thought of 
restoring the buildings, but even of carrying out 
Louis XV.'s plan of general reconstruction. He 
even dreamt of living there. 

On the restoration of the Monarchy the idea arose 
of replacing Versailles in its original position as a 
royal residence; Louis XVHL, in the intention of 
living there, caused the pavilion corresponding to 
Gabriel's Wing to be finished, and the Chapel to be 
restored. But it was not till King Louis Philippe 
came to the throne that the fate of Versailles was 
finally decided, and it was consecrated, in the form 
of a Museum, to the glories and memories of France. 
It will be of interest to record here, in the words of a 

[no] 



MUSEUM OF FRENCH HISTORY 

contemporary witness, the prevailing idea in this 
great work, and the way it was carried out: 

"To consecrate the venerable dwelling of Louis 
XIV. to all the glories of France, and to unite within 
its precincts all the great memories of our history, 
such was the scheme personally conceived by His 
Majesty. But at that time the Palace of Versailles 
contained neither pictures nor statues; the ceilings 
alone had been restored. The King gave orders that 
the depots of the Crown and the royal residences 
should be searched for all pictures, statues, busts, or 
bas-reliefs representing events or personages cele- 
brated in our annals, as well as all works of art hav- 
ing any historical interest. Works of which the 
greater number were remarkable, but which had long 
been forgotten in the storerooms of the Louvre and 
in the garrets of the Gobelins, were dragged from 
the dust; others, scattered here and there in various 
palaces, were gathered together at Versailles; and 
finally the same care was employed in collecting all 
that had been produced by modern painting and 
sculpture. These various collections, however, were 
very far from sufficing for the accomplishment of 
the scheme conceived by His Majesty; for neither 
every great man nor yet every great event in our his- 
tory was represented in this collection drawn from 
different epochs. The King supplied this want by 

[III] 



VERSAILLES 

ordering from our most distinguished artists a con- 
siderable number of pictures, statues, and busts, 
which were destined to complete the magnificent 
gathering of all that is most illustrious in the history 
of France." 

This transformation of Versailles, which added 
greatly to the popularity of the Monarchy of 1830, 
was the personal achievement of Louis Philippe. 
He ordered pictures commemorating episodes in 
French history from a whole legion of artists, to- ^ 
gether with busts and statues of the principal per- 
sonages figuring in that history; and he generously 
paid for all the work from his private purse. 

This part of his achievement, the least interesting 
to-day, was completed by a much more interesting 
collection of ancient documents, brought together 
from all parts; of portraits from the ancient royal 
collections, and canvases ordered by the Emperor 
Napoleon to commemorate the events of his reign; 
and of pictures belonging to various families, who 
were glad to offer them to Louis Philippe in their 
pride at seeiHg the portraits of their ancestors figur- 
ing in the new Museum. It is from this enormous 
mass of materials, all of which have an important 
bearing either upon Art or upon History, that the 
new administration of the Museum has drawn the 
chief elements in the interesting and instructive 

[112] 






STATUi- OF GENERAL HOCHE 



MUSEUM OF FRENCH HISTORY 

rooms, of which so many have been opened during 
the last ten years. 

In the establishment of the Museum, between the 
years 1833 and 1837, it was thought necessary to 
sacrifice a large number of decorative objects, such 
as wood-carvings, bronzes, and marble chimney- 
pieces, with which the wings and the ground-floor 
of the body of the Palace were filled. The losses 
under this head can never be repaired. It would 
have been possible, with a little feeling for the things 
of the past, to preserve a much greater number; but 
no one at that time cared for the art of Louis 
XIV. and Louis XV., which had quite gone out of 
fashion. 

The Museum was solemnly inaugurated on June 
10, 1837, in the presence of the royal family and of 
all the great governmental bodies. The opening 
was celebrated by grand fetes, and from that day 
forward the Museum, which has been from time to 
time enriched by more modern memories, has been 
one of the most popular in France. The present 
reorganisation, while respecting the original idea, 
has brought into special prominence the objects of 
special merit, and has shown that the Museum con- 
tains the elements, not only of a great historical pic- 
ture gallery for the people, but also of a collection of 
works of art that are historically interesting, and are 



VERSAILLES 

worthy on account of their beauty to figure honour- 
ably among the admirable and ancient decorations 
of Versailles. 

The most ancient series of representations of 
French history must be looked for on the second 
floor of the north wing. They begin with some por- 
traits of the fifteenth century, in the middle of which 
is a picture on wood representing Joan of Arc in 
armour, and the archangel St. Michael at the feet of 
the Virgin; it is said to have been painted during 
the captivity of the Maid of Orleans. Some little 
panels carefully painted by Corneille de Lyon, and 
the school of the Clouets, represent the princes, 
ladies, and famous personages at the Count of the 
House of Valois. Next, with Henry IV., come the 
portraits of the Bourbons and their contemporaries. 
Near Louis XIII. and Anne of Austria are fourteen 
curious paintings from the Chateau de Richelieu, 
depicting the military campaigns of the great Car- 
dinal, whose portrait- was painted by Philippe de 
Champaigne. 

When we reach the period of Louis XIV. the 
series of works of art are multiplied to an incredible 
degree; they are to be found in various places be- 
yond the second-floor rooms mentioned above, and 
in the State Apartments of the first floor, and finally 
in the rooms formerly used by Madame de Main- 

[ii6] 



MUSEUM OF FRENCH HISTORY 

tenon. In the State Apartments, especially, the por- 
traits of the Roi Soleil are very numerous. He is 
represented in statue, bust, or bas-relief, by Warin, 
Bernini, and Coyzevox; and on canvas by Le Brun, 
Mignard, Rigaud, and secondary painters. The 
Grand Roi, as was only right, filled the great rooms 
that were the products of his magnificence with 
presentments of himself. 

In Madame de Maintenon's rooms, where the col- 
lection of pictures has recently been arranged, the 
most interesting portraits of the grand Steele are to 
be found. These rooms are facing the entrance to 
the Hall of the King's Guards, on the landing of the 
Marble Staircase, a situation of such honour that it 
shows, more than anything else, the exceptional place 
held at the Court by the Marquise de Maintenon, 
after the King had wedded her morganatically, the 
marriage being celebrated secretly in the private 
chapel of Versailles. 

The portraits of grandes dames which have been 
brought together here are those of Madame la Mar- 
quise de Sevigne, who so well described the Court 
of Louis XIV.; of Louise de la Valliere and Ma- 
dame de Montespan, who governed it; of Madame 
de Maintenon herself, by Mignard and by Ferdi- 
nand Elle, who has represented her full-length, 
seated in an arm-chair, with her niece Mademoiselle 

[117] 



VERSAILLES 

d'Aubigne kneeling before her; of the Duchesse 
d'Orleans, Princess Palatine of Bavaria, who spoke 
so cruelly of Madame de Maintenon and of so 
many other people of the Court in her well-known 
letters; of Louis XIV.'s natural daughters' Madem- 
oiselle de Blois, afterwards the wife of the Regent, 
and Mademoiselle de Nantes, afterwards Princesse 
de Conde. 

We see here two delightful portraits of children 
by Mignard; the Comte de Toulouse represented as 
a pretty naked cupid, asleep upon a bed of blue silk 
with a red pillow; and the future Duchesse du 
Maine, Anne-Louise Benedicte de Bourbon, sitting 
in a park blowing soap-bubbles. By Le Brun we 
have here a powerful study of the head of the Mar- 
shal de Turenne, and by Sebastien Bourdon a strik- 
ing portrait of the superintendent Fouquet, as well 
known for his dissipation of the royal treasure as for 
his generous protection of artists. An excellent por- 
trait-painter, Claude Lefebvre, has given us Col- 
bert, the great Minister, and De Troy has painted 
the great architect Mansart. We must also notice 
the portrait of the sculptor Coyzevox by Allou, that 
of the painter Rigaud. by Lebouteux, and that of Le 
Notre, the celebrated architect, and gardener, by 
Maratta. All these countenances are very charac- 
teristic of their century. But the most interesting 

[ii8] 




THE KING'S GARDEN 



MUSEUM OF FRENCH HISTORY 

pictures in the series of portraits are those we owe 
to the brush of Rigaud. 

Hyacinthe Rigaud here shows himself a master 
in the majestic and decorative figures by which he 
so well interprets the spirit of his day. In 1702 he 
painted the great portrait of the Marquis de Dan- 
geau, Louis XIV.'s historiographer, in the sumptu- 
ous costume of Grand Master of the Order of Saint 
Lazare. This is a velvet mantle of a reddish purple 
colour, sprinkled with fleurs-de-lys, and lined with 
green satin, beneath which appears the blue ribbon 
of the royal Order of the Holy Ghost. Swelling 
with pride under his immense black peruke this 
grand seigneur faithfully represents the pretensions 
of his class. Contrasted with this are the portraits 
of artists, in which Rigaud has represented the sculp- 
tor Desjardins, the two brothers Keller — the skilful 
founders of the King's cannon and of the statues of 
Versailles — and finally His Majesty's chief painter, 
Mignard, seated in an arm-chair with a cartoon upon 
his knees. The countenance of this old man, which 
was profoundly studied by the master, is unequalled 
in its penetration and intellectuality. 

There are valuable illustrations here, in several 
contemporary pictures, of the anecdotal history of 
Louis XIV.'s Court. Van der Meulen has depicted 
the young King on horseback with the Queen near 

[121] 



VERSAILLES 

the Chateau de Vincennes, and again near that of 
Fontainebleau. An anonymous picture represents 
him at the same period presiding over the assembly 
of jurists, who are drawing up, under his eyes, the 
regulations for the reform of the administration of 
justice. A view of the old Chapel of Versailles 
shows him receiving the oath of Dangeau, who is 
kneeling before him, as Grand Master of the Order 
of Saint Lazare. And a fine sketch by Coypel de- 
picts Louis XIV. as an old man, giving audience to 
the Persian envoys, whom he received in the Galerie 
des Glaces: this was his last public audience, a few 
months before his death. 

This series of historical and anecdotal scenes 
should be completed by the study of the cartoons 
of the Gobelin tapestries, and of the tapestries them- 
selves, which have been distributed among the rooms, 
and are full of historical portraits and of costumes 
in the fashions of the day. 

There is yet another series of paintings deserving 
special notice; namely, the collection of pictures by 
Cotelle, Pierre-Denis Martin and Jean-Baptiste 
Martin, fitienne and Gabriel Allegrain, and Van 
der Meulen, giving views of the chateau and groves 
of Versailles, Marly, Trianon, Clagny, Meudon, 
Saint-Cloud, Madrid, Fontainebleau, Chambord, 
Saint-Germain, and Vincennes. Several of the 

[122] 



MUSEUM OF FRENCH HISTORY 

royal chateaux are destroyed or altered. These old 
views of the groves of Versailles, with the fountains 
in their complete state, as seen by Louis XIV.'s con- 
temporaries, form an interesting study for the visitor 
who is spending several days in the town and can 
compare them with the present condition of the same 
places. 

The eighteenth-century paintings have been quite 
recently placed in the rooms of the ground-floor, 
formerly occupied by the Dauphine and Dauphin. 
They are entered at the foot of the Marble Staircase, 
and no sooner does one pass the threshold than one 
is conscious that this is the most attractive part of 
the collection. For it was during this period that 
the French genius showed the greatest amount of 
charm and developed all its special qualities, and 
that the faces represented were most characteristic 
of the national spirit. The whole society of the 
century is brought together in these pretty salons. 

It is again the great portrait-painter Rigaud who 
greets us in the Hall of the Regency with a superb 
portrait of the young King Louis XV. in 171 5, which 
faces Philippe d'Orleans, Regent of France, by 
Santerre, surrounded by the portraits of the prin- 
cesses his daughters. It was the artist Belle who 
painted the little Infanta of Spain whom Louis XV. 
had had brought to Paris when quite a child, only 

[123] 



VERSAILLES 

to be sent back later on to the King her father, as 
being too young to be married; and it was Belle, too, 
who painted Queen Marie Leczinska, the daughter 
of the ex-King of Poland. Largilliere's portraits 
are also very remarkable, particularly those of the 
magistrates and of himself. The works of Louis 
Tocque should be noted, especially the portrait of the 
poet Gresset and that of M. de Marigny, Director of 
Buildings to the King and brother of Madame de 
Pompadour. 

In a fine salon we find, harmoniously and deco- 
ratively grouped together, the portraits of Louis 
XV.'s daughters, Mesdames de France, by Nattier. 
This painter, who has become the fashion, as he was 
in his own day, and who is so much sought after by 
amateurs at the present time, here exhibits a collec- 
tion of unique works. All the conventional grace 
of the women of his day is made to live once more in 
the likenesses he has given us of the princesses whose 
specially appointed painter he was, the most ex- 
quisite being the portraits of Mesdames Victoire, 
Sophie, and Louise, painted in 1748, when they were 
being educated at the Abbey of Fontevrault in 
Anjou. Madame Louise, whom he has represented 
holding some flowers, in a most charming picture, 
was afterwards to enter the Carmelite Convent, leav- 
ing the pleasures of Versailles to submit herself to 

[124] 




i 



m-i^* 






^'^ 



CHURCH ()¥ NOTRE DAME AT VERSAILLES 



MUSEUM OF FRENCH HISTORY 

the most severe rule of the most austere monastic 
order existing in France. 

Further on we see Madame Adelaide and Ma- 
dame Henriette as mythological goddesses, one as 
Diana, the other as Flora; and they are also depicted 
when older, in full Court dress, one singing and the 
other playing the bass-viol, for the favourite recrea- 
tion of these princesses was music, their singing- 
master being Beaumarchais, author of the Mariage 
de Figaro. 

We must not allow the charm of Nattier's pic- 
tures to make us indifferent to the merits of the other 
masters, such as Carle Van Loo, Louis-Michel Van 
Loo, Roslin the Swede, Louis Tocque, and Fran- 
cois Drouais, by whom there are here some interest- 
ing canvases and some portraits of famous men and 
women. 

On the chimney-piece of the Dauphin's bedroom, 
which is ornamented with bronzes chased by Caf- 
fieri, there is a curious piece of tapestry from the 
Gobelins, reproducing the official portrait of Louis 
XV. The remains of decorations which are to be 
found in these rooms, having survived the destruc- 
tive period of Louis Philippe, date from the time 
of the Dauphin, son of Louis XV. and father of 
Louis XVI. These apartments were occupied in the 
seventeenth century by the Dauphin, son of Louis 

[127] 



yERSAILLES 

XIV., who is known in history by the name of the 
Grand Dauphin, to distinguish him from his son, the 
Due de Bourgogne, who was living at the Court at 
the same time as himself. Nothing dating from the 
time of this prince is left in these rooms, where every- 
thing is in the style of the eighteenth century. 

The reign of Louis XVI. is represented further 
on in a fresh series of portraits, among which are 
those of the King and his cousin the Due d'Orleans, 
who became celebrated during the Revolution under 
the name of Philippe Egalite; those of the King's 
brothers, the Comte de Provence (afterwards Louis 
XVIII.) , and the Comte d'Artois (Charles X.) ; and 
finally, those of Queen Marie Antoinette, by Ma- 
dame Vigee-Lebrun. The most famous of these 
pictures is dated 1787, and represents the Queen 
surrounded by her three children; the little girl is 
Madame Royale, who was confined in the Temple 
during the Revolution and afterwards married her 
cousin the Due d'Angouleme. The little boy who 
is standing up is the first Dauphin, who was born 
in 1781 and died in 1789: the child on Marie An- 
toinette's knees is the Due de Normandie, who was 
born in 1785 and died in the Temple prison, under 
the name of Louis XVII., which was given to him 
by the royalists. This great picture has a touching 
effect upon us owing to these dramatic memories. 

[128] 



MUSEUM OF FRENCH HISTORY 

The sculptuary here is remarkable, and more 
especially the busts by Houdon, which represent 
Diderot, Voltaire, and Louis XVI. Some import- 
ant pieces of furniture have also been placed here, 
such as Louis XVI. 's bureau, and Marie Antoinette's 
jewel-cupboard, which is remarkable for the beauty 
of its workmanship and for the variety of materials 
employed in its adornment. 

No country, it would seem, has ever devoted so 
many pictures to the commemoration of the events 
in its history as France, since the time of the Na- 
poleonic era. A large proportion of the canvases 
ordered by the Emperor to recall the civil and mili- 
tary episodes of the Consulate and the Empire have 
been placed in the Museum of Versailles. They are 
arranged according to their size, and form three dis- 
tinct series, which should be studied together, al- 
though they are distributed in three different parts 
of the Palace. The largest pictures are on the 
ground-floor of the South wing, in the galleries 
known as those of the Empire. Especially notice- 
able are Thevenin's picture of the Grande Armee 
dragging its cannon through the snow over the Great 
St. Bernard Pass, and Girodet's painting of Na- 
poleon receiving the keys of the town of Vienna. 

The second series of pictures connected with Na- 
poleon is on the first floor of the North wing, in the 

[129] 



VERSAILLES 

rooms overlooking the park. For the sake of brevity 
we will not name them here, but will call especial 
attention to the third series, the most interesting of 
them all, which has lately been exposed to public 
view on the second floor of the South wing, reached 
by a staircase which is a continuation of the Grand 
Staircase of the Queen. Here we find the most 
interesting descriptive canvases and the series of 
historical portraits. 

This collection opens with a room devoted to all 
the records of the French Revolution possessed by the 
Museum, which are curious enough. We see here 
authentic portraits of Mirabeau, Lafayette, Bailly, 
Condorcet, Robespierre, Madame Roland, and Char- 
lotte Corday; the picture by David of the assassina- 
tion of Marat in his bath, etc. The best picture, 
from an artistic point of view, is the Federation 
Fete, which is perhaps Hubert Robert's masterpiece. 
Here also is a bust of the young Louis XVH., which 
was in the Palace of the Tuileries, and was thrown 
out of the window when the mob invaded that Pal- 
ace on August lo. This charming piece of sculp- 
ture was found by. chance in 1816 in the possession of 
a shoemaker, who used it, it is said, for beating his 
leather. The nose having been broken, the head 
has been restored. Beside it is the portrait of Marie 
Antoinette in widow's dress, painted in the Temple 

[130] 




LOUIS XV. 'S LIBRARY 



MUSEUM OF FRENCH HISTORY 

prison, which contrasts strikingly with the brilliant 
portraits of the same Queen to be seen in other parts 
of the Chateau. 

After these dramatic relics we see French society 
in the days of the Consulate, presided over by some 
fine pictures of the First Consul by Gros, David, 
etc. His bust by Corbet is the best that was done 
during his life. In the series of soldiers we must 
observe some very interesting drawings representing 
thirty generals of the Army of Egypt, drawn in 
crayons in Egypt itself by Dutertre. Pretty Ma- 
dame Recamier seems to preside over the society 
of her day, represented by numerous portraits of 
writers, men of science, and statesmen. In the ad- 
joining rooms are kept the sketches of the portraits 
executed by Baron Gerard, the prolific portrait 
painter, in which we are enabled to review, in the 
costumes of the day, the whole of the princely and 
diplomatic society of the first years of the nineteenth 
century. Many of these charming pictures are con- 
nected with the art of portraiture in England. 

The whole of a large room and several small ones 
are reserved for the portraits, in painting and sculp- 
ture, of the family of Napoleon. The kings and 
princes, his brothers, and their wives and children, 
are grouped round the Emperor and his two wives, 
the Empress Josephine and the Empress Marie- 

[133] 



VERSAILLES 

Louise, whom Gerard has depicted holding the little 
King of Rome. Further on there are pictures repre- 
senting Napoleon distributing decorations to the 
artists; the entry of Napoleon and Marie-Louise into 
the Tuileries on the day of their marriage; and the 
whole series of marshals and great dignitaries of 
the Crown in their sumptuous costumes. 

In this series of the second floor the military his- 
tory of the Empire is only represented by the pictures 
of General Lejeune, who was Marshal Berthier's 
aide-de-camp, and took part in the principal cam- 
paigns. This officer, who was gifted with a very 
interesting sense of the picturesque, and made 
sketches every day in camp or on the field of battle, 
has contributed from his portfolios some paintings 
full of movement and life. Especially noticeable 
are the canvases representing the Battle of Marengo; 
the bivouac of Napoleon on the eve of the Battle 
of Austerlitz; the famous cavalry charge of the 
Polish lancers at Somo Sierra in Spain, etc. — scenes 
observed and experienced in such an intelligent way 
that they alone would suffice to give an idea of the 
mental processes of the Grande Armee and of the 
sentiments that animated it, as well as of the life it 
led when crossing Europe. 

To this period, of which the French are justly 
proud, succeeds the pacific era of the Restoration: 

[134] 



MUSEUM OF FRENCH HISTORY 

round the peaceful effigies of Louis XVHI. and 
Charles X., and of the Due and Duchesse de Berry, 
are grouped the other portraits of that date: a new 
series of little sketches by Gerard is close to the 
original pictures of the same master, and prompts 
us to draw instructive comparisons. There is a por- 
trait of Gerard himself by Thomas Lawrence, of 
which the head only is finished. 

The episodes of the civil war during the three 
days of July, 1830, represented here by several 
painters and notably by Horace Vernet, lead us to 
the history of the monarchy of the younger branch. 
Here we see, among the pictures of this period, many 
of which are concerned with the agreeable relations 
of France with England, a collection of all the por- 
traits of Louis Philippe's family, by Winterhalter. 
The Due d'Orleans, the King's eldest son, is painted 
by Ingres. Among Gerard's last pictures the por- 
trait of Lamartine is noticeable. All the Parisian 
men of letters of the time, including Chateaubriand, 
Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, etc., are depicted 
together on a canvas by Heim, representing a lec- 
ture in the foyer of the Comedie Frangaise. The 
same artist (Heim) painted the Chamber of Depu- 
ties presenting the Due d'Orleans (Louis Philippe) 
with the Act that called him to the throne in 1830; 
and the Declaration presented to the Due d'Orleans 

[13s] 



VERSAILLES 

by the Chamber of Peers. The artist has filled his 
canvas with a large number of minutely observed 
portraits. Eugene Lami painted one of the most 
interesting pictures of the period, representing the 
boulevards of Paris as they appeared on the day of 
Fieschi's attempt on Louis Philippe's life, by means 
of an " infernal machine," to which many persons 
round the King fell victims. It is impossible to 
mention here all the interesting things there are to 
be seen on the spot. 

The conquest of Algeria inspired a famous artist, 
Horace Vernet, with a series of popular pictures, 
which must be sought on the first floor of the North 
wing, in the neighbourhood of the Chapel. These 
" African rooms " are well known to the people, 
but they are, nevertheless, not unworthy of the at- 
tention of lovers of painting, for they vigorously and 
faithfully reproduce scenes studied on the spot. 
Well known above all are the three pictures dealing 
with the siege and assault of Constantine, and the 
immense canvas representing the taking of Smala 
or the camp of Abdel-Kader. The event took place 
on May i6, 1843, and the painting that represents 
it is one of the largest existing, for it measures more 
than twenty-one metres in width by a little less 
than five metres in height. In the centre the Due 
d'Aumale, mounted on a white horse, is answer- 

[136] 




ARCHWAY IN THE GALERIE DES GLACES 



MUSEUM OF FRENCH HISTORY 

ing the imploring Arabs with a reassuring gesture, 
while the African chasseurs whom he commands are 
galloping towards the enemy's tents, and reducing 
them to a state of disorder and dismay. The mul- 
tiplicity of suggestive episodes and realistic details 
does not at all detract from the unity of this mar- 
vellously clever composition. 

The second Empire, in its turn, ordered several 
official canvases to be painted in honour of its mili- 
tary successes. The Crimean expedition and the 
Italian campaign occupy a large room near the 
rooms of Horace Vernet. The crossing of the Alma 
by Pils, painted in full sunlight, is one of the most 
beautiful of modern military pictures; while Gus- 
tave Dore has represented the hand-to-hand conflict 
between the English and Russian regiments in the 
battle of Inkermann with real power. Yvon has 
painted three distinct pictures of the capture of the 
redoubt of Malakoff, an important episode in the 
siege of Sebastopol. Twenty-one topographical pic- 
tures show forth the complete history of that mem- 
orable siege, in which the troops of England and 
France were united. 

The Italian campaign is less happily treated in 
the pictures representing Solferino and Magenta. 
The activity of France abroad is celebrated in a 
picture by Riou representing the fetes in connec- 

[139] 



VERSAILLES 

tion with the inauguration of the Suez Canal at 
Ismailia. 

The elegance of Napoleon III.'s brilliant Court 
has never been better shown than in Gerome's clever 
picture depicting the reception of the Siamese am- 
bassadors by Napoleon III. at the Palace of Fon- 
tainebleau. The Emperor and the Empress Eu- 
genie, surrounded by officers of the Court and ladies 
of the Palace, and with the Prince Imperial beside 
them, are receiving the homage of the Siamese, who 
are on their knees in their handsome yellow robes. 
Every individual, including the painter himself, is 
recognisable. 

Hippolyte Flandrin's portrait of Napoleon III. 
is a masterpiece, and reproduces his troubled and 
thoughtful expression in a marvellous way. The 
portrait of the Empress Eugenie is only a copy of 
Winterhalter's picture, while the sumptuous one of 
the Princess Mathilde is an original work by Du- 
bufe. Hebert and Flandrin painted the energetic 
figure of Prince Napoleon, whose wife, the Princess 
Clotilde, is represented by Hebert in a touching 
picture full of mystery. 

Horace Vernet painted the portraits of Marshals 
iBosquet, MacMahon, and Canrobert, which are the 
best of the military series; while among the civilians 
the portraits of Emile Augier by Dubufe, and of 

[ 140] 



MUSEUM OF FRENCH HISTORY 

Victor Hugo and Thiers by Bonnat, are equally 
worthy of mention. The two last date from the 
first years of the Republic, as do also the por- 
traits of General D'Aurelles de Paladine by Nelie 
Jacquemart (Madame Ed. Andre), of the dramatist 
Edouard Pailleron by Sargent, etc. 

Let us glance rapidly at the most modern sub- 
jects of all, whose representations are still distributed 
provisionally in various parts of the great Museum. 
The Battle of Reichshoffen, by Aime Morot, depicts 
for us very poignantly the heroic and murderous 
charge of the French cuirassiers at Morsbronn, 
which wrung from the King of Prussia, as he looked 
on at the sacrifice of so many regiments, the famous 
exclamation : ^'Ah! les braves gens! " 

The siege of Paris is recalled in an episode of 
the Battle of Champigny painted by Alphonse de 
Neuville; and the melancholy symbol of the Franco- 
German War, remembered by the French nation as 
the terrible year, is furnished by Georges Bertrand's 
canvas, Patrie. Here we see a troop of cuirassiers 
in the twilight descending a muddy hill, and sup- 
porting in his saddle a dead officer, whose distorted 
fingers are clutching the flag upon his breast. 

More recent events than these — represented as a 
rule on over-large canvases — are: The Celebration 
of the Centenary of the Etats-genereaux of 1789 at 

[141] 



VERSAILLES 

Versailles, by Roll; the Distribution of Rewards at 
the Universal Exhibition of 1889, by Gervex; the 
same scene at the Exhibition of 1900, by Tattegrain; 
the Funeral of President Carnot at the Pantheon in 
Paris, by Georges Bertrand; two masterpieces by 
Edouard Detaille — the Funeral of Pasteur, and the 
Review at Chalons in honour of the Czar Nicolas 
11. ; the reception of the girls of Paris by the Czar 
and Czarina at the inauguration of the Pont Alex- 
andre, by Roll; the Centenary of Victor Hugo, in 
the Pantheon, by Chartran, etc. 

The State, by ordering these pictures, has shown 
its intention of continuing to supply the Museum, 
without any break, with a graphic commentary on 
contemporary history. Later on these works will 
have a documentary value; but a large proportion 
of the public will continue to visit a section of the 
Museum to which we have not yet referred, although 
it contains the most popular pictures: those com- 
memorating the History of France, painted for the 
most part by order of Louis Phillippe, in accordance 
with the didactic conception of his Museum. The 
public will always be interested in seeing the Charle- 
magne Crossing the Alps of Delaroche, the Saint 
Louis of Cabanel, and the pictures in the romantic 
style collected in the rooms known as the " rooms of 
the Crusades," which contain the shields of those old 

[142] 





THE MARBLE STAIRCASE 



MUSEUM OF FRENCH HISTORY 

French families of which a member figured in the 
expeditions of the Christians to the East. 

The most famous pictures of this nature are col- 
lected within the vast walls of the Gallery of Battles, 
which was constructed in the place of three storeys 
of rooms, and occupies the whole length of the South 
wing. The Gallery of Battles forms an epitome — 
a little artificial, perhaps, but not without a grandeur 
of its own — of the military glory of the nation; it 
is a kind of pantheon, with its busts and inscriptions 
in honour of the leaders of armies and generals who 
have lost their lives in fighting for France; and at 
the same time its great canvases form a military 
panorama, whose subjects extend from Tolbiac to 
Wagram, and show us Napoleon's soldiers as the 
direct descendants of those of Clovis. 

The subjects taken from the Middle Ages, which 
are here treated in the romantic style of painting, 
serve only to increase our appreciation of the " Battle 
of Taillebourg," by Eugene Delocroix, the central 
point of the Gallery for lovers of art. The modern 
section, on the contrary, includes several interesting 
or famous works by Alaux, Deveria, Franque, etc.; 
two huge vGerards, " Henry IV.'s Entry into Paris," 
and the "Battle of Austerlitz"; two fine Couders, 
"Lawfeld" and "Yorktown"; Bouchot's "Zu- 
rich"; Philippoteaux's "Rivoli"; and finally, to 

[145] 



VERSAILLES 

bring the glorious series to an end, Horace Ver- 
net's three popular pictures of Napoleon, " Jena," 
" Friedland," and " Wagram." 

This part of the Museum and those which, like 
it, are devoted to the popular instruction of the 
French nation, should not be visited during the 
course of the considerable alterations which are at 
this moment being carried out in the Historical 
Museum of Versailles. That Museum will soon 
have received its final form. It should be borne in 
mind that this is the largest collection of works of 
art that a nation has ever consecrated to memorials 
of its history. 



[ 146 ] 



^•% 



THE GARDEN OF VERSAILLES 

^^^i^HE grand architectural lines of the Palace 
m C| of Versailles are continued in its gardens. 
^^^^^ It was the same mind that planned their ar- 
rangement, and one can detect in them the 
same thoughts and similar artistic feelings. Their 
air of grandeur and dignity corresponds closely with 
the magnificence of the Palace; their decoration is 
similar, and their history is identical. 

It was the condensed genius of a whole race that 
created this formal and orderly miracle of flower- 
beds, sparkling water and marble; this harmonious 
geometrical figure, to which the sunlight has lent its 
own dazzling magic. This plan, so admirably con- 
ceived by Le Notre and so splendidly coloured by 
Nature, was tlie slow and careful work of several 
generations: it is of value for its own sake, as well 
as for that of the history of three reigns passed under 
the shade of its venerable trees, when its fetes turned 
it into fairyland beside its fountains, and lovers 

[147] 



VERSAILLES 

walked among its perfumed groves, and ladies in 
wide hoops trod in long procession on the turf of 
its paths, beside the pretty little carriages in which 
servants wheeled the King and the princesses. In 
these gardens — tlie most famous in the world — one 
may evoke endless memories of radiant days, and 
also of sad hours, as when in 1789, below the bal- 
conies of Marie Antoinette, the populace cried: 
" Death to the Austrian! " 

To secure a really good idea of the splendid 
spectacle that is displayed in shady walks that lead 
to grassy glades, in luxuriant groves where fountains 
play, in distant views where the eye loses itself in 
wooded heights, one should stand quietly for a few 
moments, on a day of autumn or spring, on one of 
tlie balconies of the Galerie des Glaces, and look 
steadily at the vision that is spread before one's 
eyes. 

Far away the mirror of the Grand Canal lies in 
the sunshine, which plays upon the metal of Apollo's 
Car, the shadows of the trees tremble on the un- 
dulating turf, the pale statues bend over the white 
paths, the bronzes supply a touch of gold, and the 
water quivers in the fountains; the whole landscape 
is wrapped in profound silence, a splendid and im- 
posing mourning for the dead Monarchy. 

Nowhere can one see Nature tamed more abso- 

[148] 



THE GARDEN 

lutely than here. When Louis XIII. built this little 
chateau he laid out a hunting-park; the ground was 
marshy, and formed a circle bounded to right and 
left by rounded hills. Louis XIV. transformed the 
wild and deserted spot into this region of life and 
beauty, but we shall never know how much was spent 
in the way of will-power, labour, and money in 
raising all these terraces, the earth for which had 
all to be brought from elsewhere, and in strengthen- 
ing the foundations and approaches of the great Pal- 
ace. It stands up superbly, in all its whiteness 
and wealth of decoration, spreading out before the 
gardens the broken but symmetrical lines of its fa- 
gade, which can be seen from afar. To right and 
left, as one faces the Palace, the Southern Parterre 
and the Northern Parterre are laid out. Between 
them, in front of the Galerie des Glaces, two wide 
and deep basins with marble kerbs inclose the mo- 
tionless sheets of water known as the Parterre d'Eau. 
These great mirrors, in which are tremblingly re- 
flected the lines of the building, were originally 
designed by Le Notre to be formed of currents of 
water, tracing out a pattern of flower-beds, squares, 
and various rectangular figures, surrounded by box- 
shrubs and turf; but Louis XIV. devised this im- 
provement upon the idea, and two limpid lakes were 
formed. Soon there rose above the waters long 

[149] 



VERSAILLES 

recumbent statues in bronze, which were purposely 
made too large in proportion, in order that Louis 
XIV. might see their lines clearly from the windows 
of his salons. They form the most important series 
of bronzes in Europe, and each one of them is a work 
of grace and dignity. 

To each basin there are four recumbent statues, 
representing the rivers and streams of France, four 
nymphs lying in unstudied attitudes upon the marble, 
and four groups of children at the corners. Each 
subject, with the exception of the group of children, 
is signed by the artist who modelled it, and also bears 
the name of the brothers Keller, founders at the 
Arsenal of Paris. Charles Le Brun, the King's 
chief painter, made a rough sketch for each artist, 
in order to preserve the unity of the whole. The 
drawings were submitted to Louis XIV., who ac- 
cepted them or modified them; and then, acting on 
these preliminary suggestions, the sculptor set to 
work. 

It might seem as if the artists, after so much 
prompting, could only have produced an imper- 
sonal kind of work, without force or originality; 
but this is far from being the case. The power of 
Coyzevox is easily distinguishable from the flexi- 
bility of Tubi; the gracefulness of Magnier cannot 
be mistaken for the vivacity of Legros; and in the 

['5o] 




FLIGHT OF STEPS, NORTHERN PARTERRE 



THE GARDEN 

second rank one may recognise Le Hongre, Raon, 
and Regnaudin. 

These masters of French sculpture in the seven- 
teenth century have made the gardens of Versailles 
into a veritable museum of art. Even before we 
leave the terrace just below the Palace we see Olym- 
pus invading the park; at the foot of the steps rise two 
great marble vases, the one representing Peace being 
by Tubi, and that representing War by Coyzevox. 
iBut the bronze figures on marble tablets which sur- 
round the Parterre d'Eau are here visible in all 
their magnificence, though time has been at work 
upon their wonderful material. At the foot of the 
Vase of Peace we see the two figures of the Loire 
and the Loiret by Regnaudin, powerful and austere 
figures, with their attendant genii, and scattered 
round them on the ground the fine fruits produced 
by the countries they water. Behind the large fig- 
ures are three babies in a cluster together, playing 
with flowers, shells, and looking-glasses. These 
cupids, laughing and round and chubby though they 
be, have a little of the solemnity of the grand siecle; 
their brothers of the eighteenth century are much 
more graceful and voluptuous. 

This group is matched, on the other side of the 
same basin, by the recumbent statues of the Rhone 
and the Saone by Tubi, the artist who, though born 

[153] 



VERSAILLES 

in Rome, imbibed so much of the spirit of France 
and of her graceful and reticent art. The Rhone is 
represented as a majestic and stern old man, crowned 
with leaves; he is leaning on a rock, whence the 
bubbling stream flows, and in one hand he holds an 
oar, which a little Triton is trying to lift. The 
warm colouring of the bronze, with its tints of green, 
is admirable in the sunlight. The goddess of the 
Saone is lying on vine-leaves and clusters of ripe 
grapes, and her generous lines have all the supple- 
ness that Tubi knows so well how to give. The 
cupid by whom she is attended is pressing grapes 
between his chubby little hands; it is a vivid memory 
of Burgundy and its golden grape harvest. These 
two beautiful figures are also accompanied by two 
groups of children. We will pass over the four 
lovely nymphs who bend over the margin of the 
basin on both sides, and we will approach the north- 
ern basin, which is opposite to the Vase of War. 

Here the Marne in her grave beauty, supporting 
a horn of plenty, does honour by her gracefulness 
to her sculptor, fitienne Le Hongre. The Seine, 
by the same master, serves as a fellow to its tribu- 
tary. One would have wished this charming river 
to be represented by some gracious and serene nymph, 
crowned with ears of corn ; but the sculptor has given 
us a stern old man who does not remind us in any 

[154] 



THE GARDEN 

respect of the Seine, with her slow-flowing waters 
and her flowery curves. 

But Coyzevox, with his freedom and originality, 
has justly interpreted the Garonne and the Dor- 
dogne, the two benefactors of rich and sunny Gas- 
cony. The Garonne appears as a river god, with a 
face full of energy and a spirituel smile. A winged 
cupid is scattering flowers and fruit. It is a very 
happy performance, very French in its grace and 
force. 

The Dordogne faces it in the form of a power- 
ful woman, recumbent and smiling. Her delicate 
features are surrounded by a crown of flowers. 
Round her are scattered fruit, corn and vine branches, 
the rich harvest of the south; beneath her splendid 
arm are two flowing urns, the Dore and the Dogne. 
And these two figures are accompanied, like the 
others, by a twining group of little children. 

At the margin of the basin are four nymphs simi- 
lar to those beside its fellow. Those by the southern 
basin were modelled by Le Hongre and Raon ; those 
beside the northern one by Le Gros and Magnier. 
They are all equally graceful in their slender supple- 
ness, but there is a special character in the expression 
and pose of each. These gentle feminine figures, 
with their quiet gestures, lying among flowers and 
shells, are the most perfect personification of the 

[■55] 



VERSAILLES 

waters, and the smiling Loves by which their dreamy 
and playful charm is accompanied, form one of the 
most seductive subjects in the park. In this im- 
mense garden there is " childhood everywhere," to 
quote the words of Louis XIV.'s own command; 
and here, quite close to us, by the steps that lead 
down to the Parterre du Midi, two little bronze 
sprites represent it delightfully. They are riding 
two marble sphinxes. These are the " children on 
the sphinxes " so popular in the gardens, and were 
for a long time above the stairs of Latona, in the 
position occupied by the vases decorated with suns. 
They were modelled in 1660 by the earliest sculptor 
of Versailles, the master Jacques Sarrazin. Just at 
first they were gilded, but the gilding was afterwards 
removed to make them more harmonious with the 
bronzes of the Kellers. For it was only gradually 
that Versailles assumed its final splendour, by dint 
of experiments, and groping efforts, and labour and 
time. The original decoration was of stone; and it 
was so when Louis XIV., as quite a young man, gave 
to the two Queens, his mother and his wife, the 
" fetes of the enchanted isles." As a matter of fact, 
the heroine of the occasion was the gentle La Val- 
liere, whom the King loved secretly. Vigarani, 
who arranged the fetes of Fouquet — of whom Louis 
XIV. was jealous on account of his riches and his 

[156] 




THE LABYRINTH : STATUE OF MINERVA 



THE GARDEN 

splendid specimens of art — had organised the illu- 
minations and fireworks that completed the ballet, 
the subject of which was taken from Ariosto, and in 
which the King took the part of Roger. 

The success of these superb revels attached Louis 
still more to Versailles, and perhaps decided him to 
move the Court thither. The Francinis or Fran- 
cines, who were skilful in the engineering of water- 
works, were also introduced to his Majesty by Fou- 
quet at the same time as Le Notre and Le Brun, and 
laid Versailles under the spell of the sparkling 
waters. This was in 1668. All the artists in France 
set to work, and little by little, grove by grove, foun- 
tain by fountain, the magic of this " most beautiful 
spot in the world " was born. 

On the other side of the Parterre d'Eau, at the 
entrance to the Parterre du Nord, two bronzes cast 
by the Kellers act as fellows to the "children on the 
sphinxes." One is copied from an antique L'Arro- 
tino (the knife-grinder), in the Uffizi at Florence. 
The other is a reproduction of the Venus of Coyze- 
vox, the original being now in the Louvre. The 
pedestal of the latter is dated 1686. The idea of 
this work of the master is taken from the famous 
" Modest Venus." The harmonious lines of the lis- 
som body are well known, and the pretty gesture 
with which the arms hide the maiden's nude beauty. 

[■59] 



VERSAILLES 

The tablets by which the Northern and Southern 
Parterres are bordered are ornamented with vases of 
marble, and more especially with little bronze vases, 
on which is some curious workmanship by Claude 
Ballin. Ballin was the King's goldsmith, and it was 
he who, at this period, chased the monarch's silver 
furniture. 

Just in front of the Parterre d'Eau, and on each 
side of the steps of Latona, are the " Cabinets des 
Animaux/' To the left is the one that was formerly 
called the Fountain of the Dawn; to the right is the 
Fountain of Diana. There are two basins at dif- 
ferent levels, and the water falls softly over the 
coloured marble from one to the other in a cascade. 
At the corners of the basins there are admirable 
groups representing subjects connected with the 
chase, in which the sculptors of animals of the grand 
Steele have shown all their surprising mastery of 
their art. Here Houzeau and Van Cleve were 
employed. 

The statue that gave its name to the Fountain of 
the Dawn stands a little way back, near the steps 
of Latona. It is charming and graceful, with a star 
upon its forehead; at its feet there is a cock beneath 
the folds of the trailing garment, which reveals the 
shoulder and the beautiful arm that is raised to point 
to the Dawn. This work is by Gaspard Marsy. It 

[i6o] 



THE GARDEN 

is accompanied by other statues, which form part of 
a series of twenty-four, ordered altogether by Col- 
bert in 1674; and as they are of precious workman- 
ship they are placed in the near neighbourhood of 
the royal dwelling. It was Charles Le Brun who 
designed them, as he always did; and the allegories 
are in the taste of the period. 

The subjects are: The Four Elements, the Four 
Seasons, the Four Hours of the Day, the Four Quar- 
ters of the Globe, the Four Poems, and the Four 
Temperaments (or Dispositions of Man). These 
childish divisions, which convey little to our minds 
to-day, pleased the fancy of our forefathers. The 
statues cost the King a hundred and fifty thousand 
livres; and reasons connected with composition and 
balance have fixed their position and grouping most 
happily. Some of these figures are masterpieces. 

Such, for instance, is Spring, which stands near 
the Dawn. It is an exquisite figure of Flora with 
roses in her hair; she is carrying a basket of flowers; 
her rather cold expression is redeemed by the har- 
mony of the lines. We owe this to the chisel of 
Magnier. 

Round the Fountain of Diana there is a similar 
arrangement of graceful statues. The one facing 
the Dawn is the Air, by Le Hongre. It stands in 
the same place as when it was admired by the am- 

[161] 



VERSAILLES 

bassadors of the King of Siam, who visited Versailles 
in 1686. The ambassadors showed their good taste, 
says the Mercure gazette, by making a very long 
examination of the statue called the Air, "which is 
thought very highly of on account of the delicacy 
of its workmanship and its accuracy of form." The 
young goddess seems to be enveloping herself in 
halos; the robe that floats round her is as though it 
were the atmosphere sheltering her; the eagle, king 
of the air, is at her feet. 

At the extreme edge of the basin is Diana the 
Huntress, from whom the fountain takes its name; 
she represents the hour of evening, and on her fore- 
head is the crescent of the night. The figure is tall 
and slight, and seems to be moving quickly forward, 
followed by her bounding greyhound. This is one 
of the rarest works of art in the park, and is by 
Desjardins. 

Venus, who represents the ardent hour of midday, 
accompanies the chaste Diana. Her pure charm 
and divine grace are unequalled, for Gaspard Marsy, 
trained in the study of the antique, united in this 
figure the perfection of Greek art with the freshness 
of the French spirit. 

Everjrwherc, against the dark background of the 
trees, we see the white procession in all its beauty. 
All along the fences of the Parterre du Nord it goes, 

[162] 



I ^ \\\uv^ 




••**->; 



i.v i 



A^ 



>3«W|t ■/■>■''■.-# 







GARDEN OF THE PETIT TRIANON 



THE GARDEN 

down the steps of Latona, and across the grass plots, 
until it is lost among the luxuriant trees. Let us fol- 
low it along the Path of the Three Fountains, leading 
to the grove of the same name, where once the music 
of many jets of water rose from three basins that are 
now filled up. 

After the Venus of Marsy we come to the Europe 
of Mazeline, which is said to be a portrait of one of 
Louis XIV.'s mistresses, Madame de Montespan. 
Close to this statue is Africa, represented by a vigor- 
ous and resolute negress, a work of striking realism, 
which is followed by the Night of Roan. A woman 
smiles mysteriously; her brow is crowned with 
poppies; her dress is sewn with stars; she holds the 
lantern of the night; and the bird of darkness is at 
her feet. 

The World, by Massou, follows, and the Pastoral 
Poem, a work full of rural charm, by Granier. Let 
us leave the Path of the Three Fountains at this junc- 
tion of paths, where we find the orators and sages of 
antiquity gathered together. They are expressed in 
a somewhat monotonous form, but there are certain 
details by which we may recognise Apollonius, 
Ulysses, and Lysias. We will go on our way, follow- 
ing the line of statues, which are of little importance, 
however, until we come to Winter, a fine old man in 
marble with an air of weariness, the work of the 

[165] 



VERSAILLES 

genial Girardon. The master has put the whole of 
his artist's soul into this forceful work. One should 
visit it at the time when its aesthetic effect is strongest, 
when the desolate park is robbed of all its foliage. 
The power of the sculptor tragically and earnestly 
recalls the realities of life and pain, among all the 
proud and joyous allegories of the gardens. 

And now we have reached the Baths of the 
Nymphs, while the two statues at the corners of the 
Water Path form part of the series of " Tempera- 
ments," a series whose symbolism is very wearisome. 
Returning to the corner of the fence we come to the 
Satirical Poem, a real, biting page from Boileau, 
translated into marble. The subjects that follow are 
without interest, but quite close to the Palace is the 
Heroic Poem, a figure which Drouilly has invested 
with the proud and noble bearing of Louis XIV. him- 
self. He is crowned with laurels; his whole air is 
magnificent; and upon the damascene corslet that he 
wears above his Roman garment is a sun, the emblem 
of the King. 

The Northern Parterre, round which we have just 
been walking, has preserved the appearance given to 
it by Le Notre, which we may see in old pictures. 
The parterre, as formerly, is composed of turf and 
flowers, in triangles arranged side by side. 

Among the gay flower-beds are two basins of clear, 

[i66] 



THE GARDEN 

crystalline water, the old Basins of the Crowns, orig- 
inally ornamented by Le Hongre and Tubi. But 
the numerous restorations of the two basins have de- 
molished the great beflowered crown formerly held 
up by clustered nymphs and tritons. Nothing re- 
mains but the harmonious groupings of the nymphs 
and seagods. 

Between them rises the exquisite, the incomparable 
Fountain of the Pyramid, by Frangois Girardon. 
This marvellous piece of work stands, beneath its 
own glittering jets, just opposite to the Water Path. 
Le Brun devised the idea of it, which was used to 
such advantage by the most gifted of artists. He 
gave tlie most minute attention to this work, which is 
one of the oldest at Versailles, having been put in its 
place in 1669. If the general form of the fountain is 
borrowed from the Italians, how French is every 
minutest detail in its charm, and grace, and intellec- 
tuality! It is composed of the flora and fauna of the 
ocean, among which sirens and tritons are deporting 
themselves. Upon the lead, which was originally 
gilded, as much workmanship has been employed as 
though it were a specimen of the goldsmith's art. 
Under the quivering foam the sea-gods seem to be 
alive, as they laughingly chase each other in the run- 
ning water; for it is especially on the day when the 
water is playing that the fountains seize our imagina- 

[167] 



VERSAILLES 

tion. The various groups only reach their full signi- 
ficance when they are animated and inundated by tor- 
rents of spray. 

Further on, towards the Water Path, is the Bath of 
the Nymphs of Diana, also the work of Girardon. 
The artist has decorated the deep square basin with a 
bas-relief, which is as pure as an antique. Eleven 
nymphs of graceful outline are disporting themselves 
on the borders of a river. Time has tinged the col- 
oured lead with green; rosy tints and blue shadows 
pass across the dream-like landscape; and when the 
silver cascade glides over the bodies of the maidens 
they seem to shiver under the touch of the water. 
The scene, so full of graceful movement, is lively and 
animated; the groups of girls spread out as though in 
a garland, and in the golden air one seems to hear 
their chattering voices, their laughter, their cries of 
joy. On the sides, Girardon's masterly work is ac- 
companied by bas-reliefs by Le Hongre and Le Gros. 
They represent sea-gods, naiads and little tritons, sur- 
rounded by the fruits of the sea. 

Leaving the Bath of the Nymphs of Diana, we 
enter, on the same level, the beautiful Allee d'Eau, or 
Water Path. This shady walk at first contained 
seven little fountains, repeated twice, and formed of 
clusters of children in gilded lead. They held up 
metal baskets filled with fruits and flowers, modelled 

[i68] 




BRONZE AMORINE IN THE ALLEE D'EAU 



THE GARDEN 

by Massou and Le Hongre. It was Claude Perrault, 
the doctor-architect, who conceived the idea of these 
graceful groups, the oldest of which were set up in 
1670. 

Eight years later the number of groups was in- 
creased to twenty-two, and in 1688 the whole series 
was recast in bronze, in the form that we see 
to-day. 

This is the " Allee des Marmousets," or " Path of 
Urchins," as it is popularly called — the charming 
walk where a whole world of little tritons, cupids, 
and termini are intertwined, playing, dancing, sing- 
ing; and when, on the day of the Grandes Eaux, the 
rushing water passes over them, they really seem to 
be alive under the stream. 

The end of this path where gaiety reigns opens out 
into a crescent to enclose the Basin of the Dragon. 
The leaden figures that rise from the waters of the 
Basin of the Dragon are quite modern and rather 
quaint imitations of old ones that have disappeared. 
They are, however, of an imposing appearance. The 
monster whose wings are outspread in the middle of 
the water is the serpent Python whom Apollo van- 
quished; he is preparing to fight the dolphins who 
are dashing towards him. Some children riding 
swans are aiming arrows at the creature. 

This restoration took place at the same time as that 

[171] 



VERSAILLES 

of the Basin of Neptune, which was just finished in 
time for tlie fetes of 1889, celebrating the centen- 
ary of the States General that met at Versailles in 

1789. 

The huge semi-circle of the Basin of Neptune lies 
behind the Basin of the Dragon. It is arranged like 
an antique theatre, and it preserves all its decorative 
value even when there is no water to vary its vast lines 
It presents, however, one of the finest effects of water 
at Versailles, for the jets reach a height of twenty-one 
metres. This basin was designed by Le Notre, and 
Mansart superintended the greater part of its con- 
struction. The restoration of the wall that supports 
it, which Gabriel carried out under Louis XV., made 
hardly any change in the original plan. 

The indifferent state of Louis XIV.'s finances at 
the time of the League of Augsbourg prevented the 
realisation of his schemes for the decoration of the 
Basin of Neptune; but they were resumed by Louis 
XV., and carried out with such energy that they re- 
sulted in the most successful and most gigantic dec- 
orations in lead existing in the world. 

The principal subject represents Neptune and 
Amphitrite seated in a great sea-shell, surrounded by 
nereids, tritons, and marine monsters. The group is 
extremely animated, and full of grace and vigour. 
This beautifully moulded piece of work is by the 

E 172] 



THE GARDEN 

elder Adam, whose signature is on the lead, with the 
date 1740, the year when the decorations of the basin 
were set up. 

On the plateau to the right is a work by Jean-Bap- 
tiste Lemoine. It represents the ocean as a nude 
young man of great beauty, seated on a marine mon- 
ster. On the plateau to the left is Proteus, modelled 
by Bouchardon. The fine old man is lying upon a 
giant unicorn, and round him are marine plants, some 
fish, and a serpent. At the extremities of the basin 
two delightful little Loves, in which we begin to see 
the seductiveness of the little winged god of the end 
of the eighteenth century, are by Bouchardon. They 
are riding two dragons, and the monsters, despite 
their irritation, are obedient to the chubby little 
hands that restrain them by the help of flowing 
scarves flung round their necks. 

The shelf surrounding the basin is bordered by a 
gutter from which rise twenty-three jets of water; 
the shelf supports eleven vases of lead, of which 
double the number appears to right and left of the 
chief group. They are ornamented with a variety 
of details. 

Even when this magnificent basin is lying quietly 
in the shade of the venerable trees it is full of dignity. 
Beyond its still waters one can see the long, cool walk 
of the Marmousets, dominated by the Fountain of the 



VERSAILLES 

Pyramid as though by a splendid bouquet; and be- 
yond that again appears part of the Palace, outlined 
against the sky. But when, on the day of the Grandes 
Eaux, the scene is enlivened by the rising waters, the 
Basin of Neptune has quite a magical effect. 

The park is bounded on this side by large trees, 
which surround the circular part of the basin; and 
beneath their shade are three large pieces of sculp- 
ture, which have no value beyond that of their decora- 
tive effect. 

One of them, however, the one in the centre, is a 
famous group, placed here only in 1702. It repre- 
sents The King's Renown as a woman writing Louis 
XIV.'s life in the book of History, which is supported 
by Time. Renown has outspread wings and the air 
of one inspired; in her left hand she holds a portrait 
of Louis XIV., a very unmistakable portrait, with 
the long nose accentuating the profile, and the heavy 
curled peruke framing the face. But all this was 
renewed under the Restoration, for the original 
medallion was defaced in 1792, at the time when the 
revolutionary authorities were trying to proscribe all 
royal effigies in works of art. 

This group, which was designed by Le Brun, was 
executed in Rome and completed in 1686 by 
Domenico Guidi. The composition is heavy and 
massive ; it is not seen with equal clearness from every 

[174] 




THE ALLEE D'EAU 



THE GARDEN 

side; and it is wanting in that harmonious simplicity 
with which the French sculptors of the same period 
invested their allegorical works. Such a work of art 
as this, together with the famous equestrian statue by 
Bernin — relegated by Louis XIV.'s offended taste to 
the end of the Piece des Suisses — furnish us with the 
best and most instructive comparison, and enables us 
to judge how justly the " sceptre of the arts," accord- 
ing to the phrase of the day, was wrung from Italy 
by the France of that period. 

The Water Path was formerly bordered on one side 
by the Grove of the Three Fountains and on the other 
by that of the Arc de Triomphe. The former is quite 
in disorder, and the other has kept but little of its 
former magnificence. 

It took its name from a triumphal arch raised in 
honour of Louis XIV. It formed three doorways of 
gilded ironwork, which framed the sparkling waters 
in marble and gold. To the right and left of the 
grove the Fountains of Glory and of Victory were 
surmounted by a genius holding a crown of gold; 
and lastly, the group known as France Triumphant 
called for the admiration of all. This still exists, 
having survived the destruction of the grove in 1775, 
when Louis XVI. began to alter the gardens. 

The Fountain of France Triumphant, which has 
been restored in our own days, is bereft of its rich 

[177] 



VERSAILLES 

gilding; but it is nevertheless an imposing work of 
art, and we can recognise the hand of Tubi in the 
majestic woman with the long mantle, bearing upon 
her shield the " Sun " of Louis XIV. 

By the same master is the figure of Spain, repre- 
sented as a young man seated on a lion beside the 
triumphal car of France. He has the round, curly 
head common to Tubi's statues. 

The fine old man who represents the Empire — ^van- 
quished like Spain — is seated upon an eagle. In its 
vigorous treatment it is easy to recognise the work of 
Coyzevox. The group as a whole is a little heavy, 
but it is not without nobility, and perhaps the effect 
may have been lightened by the brilliant gilding with 
which it was formerly covered. 

In the grove, so greatly shorn of its old splendour, 
several works of art have been brought together, 
though disconnected in subject and of various origins, 
and have acquired a value of their own through being 
well arranged, and suitable for the open air. We 
may notice especially two fine statues, originally 
placed in the famous Labyrinth, which was done 
away with in Louis XVI. 's time because it was fall- 
ing into disrepair. In it were gathered all the inter- 
esting groups in coloured lead representing the fables 
of iEsop, of which none have been preserved but the 
tvvo fine figures of Love and Msop, which still show 

[178] 



THE GARDEN 

their original rosy tints under the green discoloration 
of time. 

Among the great walks that diverge from the 
Basin of Neptune, Le Notre planned the bright grove 
of the Water Theatre. It took its name from its con- 
figuration, and its effects of water were unequalled; 
but nothing remains to us of this marvellous spot, this 
mass of fountains and statues, except engravings and 
paintings of it. The Water Theatre disappeared in 
the middle of the eighteenth century, and in its place 
is a large cup-shaped hollow covered with turf and 
known as the Rond Vert, which is charming in its 
beautiful simplicity, with its crown of great trees. 
The Island of Children still exists quite close to it, 
and adds a touch of gaiety to its wildness. 

These pretty children, full of smiling charm and 
grace, are playing in the water of the basin, and 
climbing upon the rock. The name of the sculptor 
of this masterpiece of freshness was unknown until 
our own day; but we may feel quite certain that it is 
the work of the accomplished master Hardy, to 
whom, among others, we owe the admirable frieze 
of the children at play, in the Salon of the CEil-de- 
Bceuf. 

The large Grove of the Baths of Apollo only dates 
from 1778. It replaced several groves of older date 

[179] 



VERSAILLES 

that were planted and done away with at various 
times. 

The celebrated group, Apollo attended by 
Nymphs, which, during the earliest days of Ver- 
sailles, under the Grand Roi, adorned the famous 
Grotto of Tethys, was finally brought to this spot. 
From the Grotto of Tethys it was taken to the Grove 
of Domes; there it was placed under some gilded 
canopies in the first Grove of the Baths of Apollo; 
finally, under Louis XVI., Hubert Robert, the great 
landscape gardener, in obedience to the taste of the 
day, designed for this corner of the vast French gar- 
den a very beautiful " English " one. He made a 
new and very picturesque grotto, which still exists, 
and the beautiful group of the god of light and of the 
nymphs was placed in it. 

There is nothing here of the majesty and symmetry 
of Louis XIV.'s park; but there is all the charm of 
the unexpected, of tasteful disorder, of a conventional 
kind of wildness, of great trees, and water falling in 
a cascade from the grotto cut in the rock and sup- 
ported by columns. This guarded corner, where art 
is concealed under a semblance of real nature, is a 
restful change for the mind and the eye, after the 
sumptuous symmetrical walks, the groves arranged 
in geometrical figures, the whole carefully thought- 

[i8o] 







FOUNTAIN AT THE GRAND TRIANON 



THE GARDEN 

out plan, In short, whicH gave so much pleasure to 
our forefathers in their intellectual courage. 

It was Hubert Robert who arranged the beautiful 
sculpture at the entrance to the mysterious cave, 
where it appears to gain in whiteness from the sur- 
rounding shadow. 

Wearied by his day's journey in the chariot of the 
sun, Apollo has come to rest in the dwelling of the 
goddess of the sea. The daughters of Tethys crowd 
round the glorious Phoebus, bathing him, and bring- 
ing perfumes. The divine son of Latona yields his 
youthful form to the tender care of the nereids; his 
proud, noble head, with its flowing hair, is crowned 
with flowers; his profile is that of Louis XIV., for 
the Grand Roi loved to see himself in the character 
of the God of Light, and Apollo appears in all parts 
of the park, as does also Louis's emblem, the Sun. 

There are eight daughters of the sea, surrounding 
the God of Day, each with her own special grace 
carefully rendered, and manifested in gestures of 
submission, or voluptuousness, or timidity. Their 
graceful forms, bowed as though in prayer or rising 
like flowers towards the light, are full of the radiance 
of youth, and of virgin purity and warmth. Girar- 
don, always so masterly in the representation of 
sweetness and truth, is the chief author of this great 

[183] 



VERSAILLES 

work, but Regnaudin came to his assistance and gave 
it the full benefit of his powerful touch. 

In the hollows of the Grotto, to right and left, were 
placed the horses of the Sun. Those on the right 
are the work of Gilles Guerin. The spirited and 
quivering animals are boldly modelled. Those on 
the left are by the brothers Marsy, and although 
technically unconventional they are surprisingly 
animated. 

At the end of Marie Antoinette's favourite grove, 
at the junction of the long straight walks, one of the 
four Basins of the Seasons, that of Ceres, shows that 
goddess surrounded by children playing in the corn. 
This group is of lead, and was formerly gilded. In 
it Regnaudin showed a profound knowledge of his 
art. Its full significance is only seen when the jet of 
water falls upon the flowery harvest. 

The Goddess of Summer, though modelled rather 
heavily, is not wanting in charm. Lying back among 
the rich products of the fields she watches the liquid 
column rising towards the blue sky and shining 
among the leaves. Three naked cupids are lying in 
the corn; under the flowing water they are as bright 
as poppies scattered in the field. 

The round basin of Flora is not far from here, at 
the junction with the Path of Spring. Though it has 
been restored the pretty statue has kept its charms of 

[184] 



THE GARDEN 

grace and delicacy. Above its smiling face it is 
crowned with three nosegays of eglantine. The 
whole season of flowers is in this island of roses. 
Naked Loves are playing with garlands that droop 
into the water of the basin. Tubi put into this work 
all the art, harmony, grace and freshness at his com- 
mand. 

From the Basin of Flora a walk leads us to the 
Grove of the Star. There was originally in the cen- 
tre of this grove an important fountain called the 
Mountain of Water, which was done away with in 
1704, and has left no sign of its existence. A few 
antiques, such as the excavations in Italy have re- 
vealed in such numbers, are becoming moss-grown 
at the corners of the hedges. 

The neighbouring fountain, called the Obelisk, 
occupies a large space of regular form, surrounded 
by fine thickets. The Banqueting Hall or Council 
Hall was formerly here, but was destroyed at the 
same time as the Mountain of Water, and replaced 
by this raised basin, the slopes of which are turfed. 
In the centre is the cluster of reeds from which the 
jets of water rise in the form of an obelisk. 

Let us now retrace our steps towards the Basins of 
the Seasons, in search of the Fountain of Enceladus. 
French art has here yielded to the taste of Italy, but 
the result is not unsuccessful. The figure is by 

[185] 



VERSAILLES 

Marsy. The giant, who is crushed under the debris 
of Mount Ossa and Olympus, which he had heaped 
up in order to climb to the sky, is of considerable 
power. From his mouth issues a jet of water sev- 
enty-eight feet in height. 

The Grove of the Domes is quite close to the En- 
celadus. It has experienced many changes. It takes 
its name from two pavilions in coloured marble cov- 
ered with gilded lead, which no longer exist. They 
were designed by Mansart, and the decorative scheme 
was completed by eight statues on pedestals orna- 
mented with shells. 

Louis XIV. loved to visit this spot accompanied 
by the ladies of the Court. Refreshments were 
served to the sound of music. The chronicles of the 
Court frequently mention the giving of entertain- 
ments in the Grove of the Domes. 

The delicious domes of white marble had coloured 
columns and pilasters, and at the corners and between 
the pilasters were bronze trophies. They disap- 
peared in the nineteenth century for want of repairs, 
which is much to be regretted. We may derive some 
idea of the general effect from the double exedra 
that has recently been restored round the basin. Its 
details do not exactly correspond to the original ar- 
rangement, but as a whole it is quite in the spirit of 
the decorations of Le Notre. All the statues, except 

[i86] 




CHOIR OF THE CHAPEL 



THE GARDEN 

one, that adorned this grove at the end of Louis 
XIV.'s reign have been replaced upon their pedestals, 
and form a most delightful collection of choice works 
of art. 

The most ancient and the most delicate of these 
figures is Tubi's Galatea. She has the beauty of an 
antique Venus and the intellectual charm of a vv^oman 
of to-day; her brow is crowned with flowers, and her 
eyes seek Acis the young shepherd, whose song she 
hears. He, the rival of Polyphemus, is playing the 
flute quite near to her, and caressing the beloved 
Nymph with his eyes. The grace of his young form 
— also the work of Tubi — is quite incomparable. 
The two lovers are separated by a figure of Aurora, 
by Magnier. The young goddess is opening the 
gates of the East and scattering roses; she is gliding 
lightly upon the clouds like the first rays of morning. 

Leaving the Grove of the Domes by the gate 
through which we entered it, we proceed towards the 
Parterre of Latona, approaching it from below. 

Very brilliant in their new gilding are the three 
basins, that of Latona and those of the Lizards, in 
which we see the metamorphosis of the wicked 
peasants of Lycia, who refused to receive the mother 
of Apollo when she was on the point of being de- 
livered. 

The carpet of turf is enclosed by brilliant shrub- 

[189] 



VERSAILLES 

berles; on tKe steps that form the base of the amphi- 
theatre are vases, always full of flowers. For this is 
the gardeners' pride, and has always been their fa- 
vourite spot since the garden was first made. 

The clipped yews that border the slopes on each 
side of the parterre should be somewhat restrained to 
avoid injuring the design of Le Notre. These trees 
are too luxuriant; in places they hide tlie statues of 
the parterre, and therefore their lines are not merely 
unfortunate, but harmful. All along the slopes of 
Latona the whiteness of marble statues is contrasted 
with the background of dark hedges. They are 
figures copied from the antique by the pupils of our 
Royal Academy at Rome, and have no value but that 
of their decorative effect. 

At the bottom of the Parterre of Latona are 
grouped the principal statues, and there are here 
some admirable termini, facing the Palace. They 
have not the usual stiffness of termini; they are sur- 
prisingly animated in expression, and although in- 
spired by the art of Rome, are quite modern in 
spirit. 

There is a succession of termini all along the Paths 
of Spring and Autumn, beginning with the Diogenes 
of Lespagnandel, with the Ceres of Poulletier facing 
it. *' His Majesty," says Poulletier, in speaking of 
this work, " had the goodness to appear satisfied with 

[190] 



THE GARDEN 

it when I set it up, and exclaimed repeatedly: ' There 
is a beautiful woman! How rare it is to find one 
like her I' It is, moreover, a fact that the King 
showed his satisfaction by rewarding me in propor- 
tion to the merit he found in my work." This w^as 
the time when the King paid his artists liberally; but 
later on, after the expenses of his unfortunate wars, 
he changed in this respect. 

The semi-circle at the top of the grass plots, which 
corresponds to another semi-circle at the end of the 
Royal Walk, is decorated with four groups of un- 
equal worth. Learned tradition attributed wrong 
names to them, which figure in old guide-books, and 
even in recent works. We will only call attention 
to the Laocoon. This copy by Tubi is one of the best 
of the many that have been made of the famous 
Rhodian work of art. 

Here, in Louis XIV.'s time, stood the masterpieces 
of Puget, which were moved to the Museum of the 
Louvre during the last century; the Perseus deliver- 
ing Andromeda and the Milo of Crotona, which com- 
bined all the special tastes of the Grand Roi, who 
showed them proudly to his visitors. And it was 
from this same spot that he preferred to point out to 
his guests the beautiful arrangement of the gardens, 
for it is from here that the paths and avenues of the 
park diverge, and from this point, too, on the days 

[191] 



VERSAILLES 

of the Grandes Eaux, one can obtain the most exten- 
sive view of the jets of water. 

By going along the Autumn Walk one may see a 
new series of termini, and a copy of the Dying Gaul 
of the capital. Its fellow is the celebrated Nymph 
with the Shell of Coyzevox, as a matter of fact only 
a rather weak copy of the original, which is in the 
Museum of the Louvre, sheltered from the inclem- 
encies of the weather. But none the less this inter- 
pretation of it is the most tasteful and bewitching 
statue at Versailles; for it admirably reproduces the 
soft curves of the bending figure, and the pretty 
round head. In her pretty fingers the girl is holding 
the shell in which she is catching the water from the 
flowing urn at her side. In the perfection of the 
lines one may detect the art of the Ancients, but the 
charm and graciousness of the smile are altogether 
French in spirit. 

The wide, majestic Royal Walk spreads out before 
us its carpet of turf, which is well known as the Tapis 
Vert of Versailles. It is magnificently framed by 
lofty trees of great luxuriance, which throw their 
shade over the row of statues leading down to the 
Basin of Apollo — twelve white statues along the 
fence, alternating with twelve large vases decorated 
with trophies and flowers. Most of them are copies 
from the antique; and especially noticeable is the 

[192] 



THE GARDEN 

delicate Fenus de Medici, copied by Flamen, so 
subtly expressive in its pretty animation; and the 
Venus leaving the Bath, which was partly the orig- 
inal work of Legros, and resembles, in its grace and 
harmony, a work by Racine. Twelve colossal marble 
vases, original in shape and decorated with flowers 
and ornaments, alternate with the twelve statues that 
stand along the Tapis Vert. 

The Royal Walk ends in the semi-circle that en- 
closes the Basin of Apollo. The series of statues, 
standing out against the background of the trees, is 
continued all round it, but there is nothing in them 
to arrest our attention. One is attracted rather by 
the great sheet of still water from which Apollo's 
glorious car emerges. Here J. B. Tubi's delicate 
and supple art becomes amazingly powerful. This 
group that is before us is the most famous, among so 
many, in the gardens of Versailles. It was formerly 
gilded, and its glittering appearance as seen from 
the balconies of the Palace was a revelation of magi- 
cal brightness. It has now lost its dazzling surface. 

Here again, in the features of the young god, we 
find those of Louis XIV.; but was he not indeed the 
Roi Soleil, this Louis who bore as his emblem the 
radiant head of Phoebus? This immense group is 
the complement of the one in the Grotto of Tethys, 
and represents the refreshed Apollo leaving the 

[195] 



VERSAILLES 

domain of his spouse, the Goddess of the Sea. His 
triumphal car is issuing from the waves; the young 
god, splendid in his youth, is holding the reins of the 
four horses in one hand. La Fontaine describes the 
superb team in these words : 

Les coursiers de ce dieu commengant leur carriere 
A peine out hors de I'eau la croupe tout entiere; 
Cependant on les voit fmpatlents du frein: 
lis forment la rosee en secouant leur crin. . . , 

The long, flowing hair is crowned with laurels, the 
proud head is bent, the eyes are following the course 
of the divine steeds, who are rearing, and beating the 
water with their quivering hoofs. The chariot is 
surrounded by Tritons; and one of them, a monstrous 
creature, is stiffening his body, and puffing out his 
cheeks on the couch, as he proclaims to the Earth the 
coming of the brightness of day. All the tints of the 
sky are reflected in the water, and the dark trees stand 
round in all their quiet mystery. 

The gates at this point serve as a division between 
the gardens and the old " Little Park," which has 
kept its enclosing wall, and of which the area is 1738 
hectares, while the " Great Park," the hunting-park, 
measured more than 6600 hectares. The Little Park 
is crossed by the Canal, which penetrates into the gar- 
dens in the form of an octagonal sheet of water. A 

[196] 



THE GARDEN 

flight of several wide steps indicates the spot where 
the Court of three reigns was in the habit of embark- 
ing, for boating was at all times a favourite diversion 
with both ladies and seigneurs. 

The Grand Canal is one of the finest sights in the 
gardens. It is exactly in a line with the central point 
of the Palace, from whose windows it may be seen 
sparkling and quivering in unison with the waters of 
the Parterre d'Eau. 

^^ It was first designed in 1667, when the Basin of 
Apollo was no more than a Basin of Swans, without 
any kind of ornament. In order to enlarge the view 
the King had the happy idea of forming this Canal, 
which should drain the marshy places of this low- 
lying ground. The gentlemen of the Academy of 
Sciences were consulted, and declared that the opera- 
tion would drain the plain while at the same time 
beautifying the Park. The Canal was gradually en- 
larged and at last reached the fine proportions that 
we see to-day. 

It is 1520 metres in length by 120 metres in width. 
The widest end, where it was designed for a long time 
to raise a building with colonnades, is 195 metres 
wide. The " cross-bar of the Canal," which cuts it 
near the middle in the form of a cross, is 1013 metres 
long, and extends from Trianon to the site of the old 
Menagerie, where the King reared rare animals from 

[197] 



VERSAILLES 

every foreign country. The Canal was formerly sur- 
rounded by a border of stone, level with the ground. 
The sheet of water near the Basin of Apollo served as 
a port for the very numerous pleasure boats. 

This flotilla, which disappeared at the time of the 
Revolution, was composed, in the days of the Grand 
Roi, of boats of every description, built by the naval 
architects of the Royal Navy. There were launches 
among them, and miniature galiots and frigates. 
More than once experiments in new designs for large 
ships of war were made upon the Canal at Versailles, 
where the work was carried on by the best carpenters 
of the port of Dunkirk. New designs for additions 
to the flotilla were furnished by the Admirals Tour- 
ville and Duquesne, and the Marquis de Langeron. 

If this miniature flotilla has little concern with the 
art of navigation, it has at all events a place in the 
history of art. Every boat was a gem of decoration ; 
Tubi, Mazeline, the Marsys, and above all Philippe, 
the first of the Caffieri family, were employed in 
their ornamentation; they were delightfully carved. 

The Keller brothers, with the most intelligent care, 
had cast, in the Arsenal of Paris, some guns for a 
dainty ship of war. 

The most remarkable of these pretty barques was 
the " Grand Galley," with her escutcheons and carv- 
ings, her silken awnings fringed with gold, her pen- 

[198] 



■SPT^' 




CAFFIERI'S CLOCK 



THE GARDEN 

nons and streamers, and rigging of gold and crimson 
silk. She was a reproduction in miniature of the gal- 
ley Reale, which Puget had carved for the Mediter- 
ranean fleet. 

In 1674 Venice, the town of gondolas, sent the 
Grand Rot, for his Canal at Versailles, some bril- 
liantly gilded gondolas. They were impelled by 
Italian gondoliers in their picturesque costume. A 
certain number of their compatriots joined them, at- 
tracted by the advantages ofifered to them, and these, 
together with some men of Provence, composed the 
regular crews of the Canal boats. Their captain was 
Consolin, of Marseilles; but nearly all the names of 
the crews are Venetian. 

A nautical city soon grew up on the borders of the 
Canal, a sort of large corporation with its own 
regulations and customs. In the " little town," 
which was enclosed by walls, the families of the 
Italian immigrants multiplied and lived in peace 
until the end of the eighteenth century. Their low 
houses are partly preserved, and are still called by the 
old name: Little Venice. On the occasions of the 
great Court fetes the Grand Canal was ornamented 
with buildings of fire; the illuminations on the banks, 
reflected by the water, created a most fantastic effect. 
The first experiment of this kind took place in 

1673- 

[201] 



VERSAILLES 

The Gazette relates that on the King's birthday 

Monseigneur le Dauphin gave a great fete at Ver- 
sailles, with fireworks on the Grand Canal, which 
was illuminated in every direction with an infinity 
of lights, and with other rejoicings which lasted for 
a great part of the night." This was the announce- 
ment of that wonderful evening in August, 1674, 
which was the climax of the fetes given by the King 
in honour of the second conquest of Franche Comte. 

The illumination of all the gardens was superin- 
tended by Vigarani. As soon as it was dark the 
Court went out to walk in them. The grand lines 
of the parterres and of the Royal Walk were repro- 
duced in light, as well as those of the Grand Canal 
throughout its length. The latter was decorated with 
termini, and figures, and fish, and with buildings at 
different distances. At the head of the Grand Canal 
were pyramids of light, and in front of them two 
horses of fire driven by heroes " with the action of 
those of Montecavallo at Rome." Their Majesties 
and the Court, during the illuminations, went on the 
water in gondolas. 

At the Cross were four large pavilions ornamented 
with termini; at the end that reached Trianon was 
Neptune's car surrounded by tritons; at the end near 
the Menagerie was that of Apollo, with the Hours 
flying at his horses' heads. All these designs, com- 

[ 202] 



THE GARDEN 

posed of transparencies, were at least twenty-two feet 
high. 

In the space at the furthest extremity of the Canal 
arose the principal subject in the illuminations, a 
gigantic palace of light standing on rocks, with an 
arrangement of water-efifects, and a crowd of figures 
by way of decoration. 

Spectacles such as these were incomparably fine, 
and the good historiographer, Felibien, becomes al- 
most eloquent as he describes them thus : 

" In the deep silence of the night were heard the 
violins that followed his Majesty's boat. The sound 
of these instruments seemed to animate the various 
designs, the softened light of which, in return, lent a 
special charm to the symphony which it would not 
have had in total darkness. As the boats passed 
slowly to and fro there were glimpses between them 
of the illuminated water round about, and, as the oars 
struck the dark surface of the Canal softly, with 
measured strokes, they marked it with streaks of 
light. . . . And the great sheets of water, lighted 
only by all the illuminated designs, resembled long 
galleries and salons enriched and adorned by archi- 
tecture and statuary of a degree of artistic beauty un- 
known before, and beyond anything the mind of man 



can conceive." 



Many a time afterwards fireworks at one end or 
[203] 



VERSAILLES 

the other of the illuminated Canal concluded the 
great nocturnal festivities of the Court of France. 
They occurred more than once in the reign of Louis 
XV. The last and perhaps the most beautiful illu- 
mination of the Grand Canal and the surroundings 
of the Basin of Apollo was in honour of the marriage 
of the Dauphin, Louis XV.'s grandson, to the Arch- 
duchess Marie Antoinette of Austria. The King's 
draughtsman, Moreau le Jeune, perpetuated it in 
one of his most famous drawings, which is in the 
Louvre. 

From the windows of the balcony of the Galerie 
des Glaces, which had been covered with a grating, 
King Louis XV. and Marie Antoinette, who had not 
gone down into the gardens, were able to watch the 
brilliant bevy of the ladies of the Court as they 
walked about the Parterre d'Eau and gazed at the 
brightly lighted scene stretching away into the dis- 
tance. They were all in full dress and scintillating 
with diamonds ; and the first of them all was the beau- 
tiful favourite, that Comtesse du Barry who was 
afterwards so cordially to detest the young Dauphine. 
Her creature, the Due d'Aiguillon, the future Min- 
ister, had gallantly given her his arm; and her 
blonde beauty, robed in one of her sumptuous toi- 
lettes of gold and silver tissue, showed to the best ad- 
vantage under the illuminations. At a little distance 

[204] 




BRONZE GROUP ON IHE I'AKThKRE D EAU 



THE GARDEN 

was her enemy the Due de Choiseul, with his sister 
the Duchesse de Grammont, that friend of the Mar- 
quise de Pompadour who would have been so glad, 
at her death, to take her place. Among the brilliant 
throng, too, were the languishing Princesse de Lam- 
balle, lately married in France, the pretty brunette 
Julia de Polignac, who was to become the friend of 
the future Queen, and many other beautiful women, 
intoxicated with fetes and pleasure, who were crowd- 
ing all they could into their lives, as though they felt 
themselves to be threatened by fate. 

In the days of the old Monarchy there was no part 
of the gardens of Versailles more animated in appear- 
ance than the head of the Grand Canal. The general 
effect was extraordinary, on account of the numbers 
of boats of sorry shape with their rich " pavises " and 
brilliant gilding. The sailors always seemed to be 
keeping holiday: the crews wore close vests, blue and 
red coats with gold buttons, stockings and garters of 
crimson silk, muslin cravats, and ribbons to tie their 
hair. The waistcoats of the gondoliers were made 
of crimson Genoese damask, embroidered in gold or 
silver, and they wore caps of black velvet, silk stock- 
ings, and shoes. 

It was possible at all hours to select a boat to go to 
Trianon or the Menagerie, or merely to row about 
to the sound of violins. Louis XIV., Monseigneur, 

[207] 



VERSAILLES 

and the princes took great pleasure In pastimes of this 
kind. A narrative by Dengeau, chosen from among 
twenty others, will show at the same time the part 
played by Trianon at this period and the importance 
of the gardens as a whole in the ordinary life of the 
Court. 

The date is July lo, 1669, and the Court is living 
at Trianon: "At about six o'clock in the evening 
the King went into his gardens, and after walking 
about them for some time he paused on the terrace 
overlooking the Canal, where he saw Monselgneur, 
Madame le duchesse de Bourgogne, and all the 
princesses embarking. Monselgneur was in a 
gondola with Monselgneur le due de Bourgogne and 
Madame le princesse de Contl. Madame le duchesse 
de Bourgogne was in another with some ladies she 
had chosen; Madame le duchesse de Chartres and 
Madame le duchesse de Bourbon were in separate 
gondolas. The King ordered some seats to be placed 
at the end of the balustrade, where he remained till 
eight o'clock listening to the music, which was made 
to play as near him as possible. When the King had 
returned to the Chateau the others went up to the end 
of the Canal, and only returned to the Chateau in 
time for supper. The King had at first intended to 
go on the water, but as he has been showing signs of 
an attack of rheumatism M. Fagon advised him 

[208] 



THE GARDEN 

against it, although the weather was very fine. After 
supper Monseigneur and Madame le duchesse de 
Bourgogne walked in the gardens until two o'clock 
in the morning, and on the terrace above the house; 
after which Monseigneur went to bed, Madame la 
duchesse de Bourgogne then went in a gondola with 
some of her ladies, and Madame la Duchesse in 
another gondola, and they remained on the Canal till 
sunrise. Then Madame le Duchesse went to bed; 
but Madame la duchesse de Bourgogne waited until 
Madame de Maintenon started for Saint-Cyr. She 
saw her get into her carriage at seven o'clock and 
then went to bed, without appearing tired after her 
long vigil. Monseigneur le due de Bourgogne, who 
had returned to Versailles, was equally wakeful, 
walking in the gardens until daylight and then going 
to play mall till six o'clock." 

These nocturnal expeditions of the Duchesse de 
Bourgogne are famous. Her ladies were no less de- 
voted than herself to this class of amusement. It was 
not at all uncommon for them to be prolonged until 
dawn; refreshments were taken, and eaten on the 
water; the musicians followed in another boat at a 
little distance, and gave to the evenings of Versailles 
the melody and magic of the nights of Venice. 

Retracing our steps along the Royal Walk till we 
are near the centre, we may see on the right, through 

[209] 



VERSAILLES 

the thick trees that surround it, the famous Colon- 
nade, which looks like the remnant of an antique 
monument, marvellously preserved. It is circular 
in shape, and is formed of thirty-two columns of col- 
oured marble, strengthened by pilasters. Above 
them are arcades supporting a light frieze, and the 
whole is surmounted by thirty-two vases. The 
variety of marbles has a charming effect. Violet 
breccia is blended v/ith the blue and red marbles of 
Languedoc. 

The admiration of contemporaries was not denied 
to the Colonnade of Versailles, and to the profusion 
of rare marbles gathered there. A contributor to 
the Mercure Galant of November, 1686, described it 
when it was barely completed, and added: "The 
wood that encloses it, with the trellis-work that cov- 
ers the stems of the trees, makes a background that 
shows off the architecture to the best advantage, and 
one must admire this example of pure splendour as 
much for the refinement of its workmanship as for 
the richness of its materials. This work plainly 
shows that the King is the most powerful prince in 
the world, and that marble is at the present time more 
common in France than in Italy. . . ." 

In the eighteenth century this grove was again un- 
reservedly praised by Blondel the architect: "The 
richness of the materials, the beauty of the workman- 

[210] 




i^^lTSliii 



'A\m 



ALTAR IN THE CHAPEL 



THE GARDEN 

ship, the architecture, the sculpture, the hydraulics, 
are all combined with so much art and intelligence 
that the appearance of this work alone is sufficient to 
give an idea of the splendour and prosperity of the 
arts under Louis the Great." 

The Colonnade was built by Deschamps, the 
worker in marble, from the designs and under the 
direction of Mansart, who here, as in so many other 
circumstances was the colleague of Le Notre. The 
perfect concord between the two architects was rec- 
ognised by such of their contemporaries as were 
competent judges, and those who called it in question 
were quite mistaken. Saint-Simon's anecdote, in 
which this historian was as inaccurate as usual, is 
often repeated in connection with the journey of Le 
Notre to Italy: " The King led him into the gardens 
of Versailles, where he showed him what had been 
done in his absence. At the Colonnade he was silent. 
The King pressed him to give his opinion: ' Well, 
sire, what do you wish me to say? You have made a 
mason into a gardener (this was Mansart) and he has 
given you a specimen of his work.' " If this was ever 
said, it was assuredly not in the circumstances nar- 
rated by Saint-Simon, for Le Notre's journey to Italy 
took place in 1679, and the Colonnade was only built 
in 1685. 

There is a great wealth of sculpture here. Under 

[213] 



VERSAILLES 

each arch there Is a white marble vase, from which a 
straight jet of water rises, and falling again, over- 
flows to the feet of the vases into a large sheet of 
water, from which the whole building appears to 
emerge. For roof this well-designed little temple 
has all the vault of the sky. From the keystone of 
each arch smiles the face of a nymph or a naiad, or 
a spirit of the woods. These heads are by Coyzevox, 
Eguandin, and others. 

Round the arcade there runs a charming bas- 
relief representing children at play, the work of 
Coyzevox, Tubi, Le Comte, and Le Hongre. All 
these sculptured babies are twining garlands of 
flowers, or playing instruments of every descrip- 
tion — lutes, lyres, flutes, violins, cymbals, and tam- 
bourines. These little musicians remind us of the 
use for which the grove was destined, and of all 
the brilliant concerts that were given in it to the 
Court, by night and by day. 

The central group which completes the harmoni- 
ous effect was not added until some time had elapsed. 
It is the famous work by Girardon, his masterpiece, 
Proserpine carried off by Pluto, and the date on the 
marble is 1699. He certainly did not accomplish 
it alone, at the advanced age he had then reached, 
and Robert Le Lorrain, his admirable pupil, did 
some work upon it. The subject was inspired by the 

[214] 



THE GARDEN 

myth of Persephone, whom the Romans turned Into 
Proserpine. Pluto is carrying off the daughter of 
Ceres to make her Queen of the Infernal Regions 
as she is gathering flowers with her companions in 
the fields of Sicily. 

The group is hewed from a single block of mar- 
ble in bold and harmonious lines. First, there is 
Pluto, vigorous and ardent, lifting in his arms the 
weak girl who is trying to escape him. His royal 
head and flowing hair are crowned with ebony; in 
his haste he has thrown to the ground at his feet a 
woman who was trying in vain to arrest his course. 
Proserpine's companion has all the slender grace 
of the goddess, and all her expression of despair. 
This suggestive work, so full of delicacy and force, 
is one of the finest examples of French art, rich as 
it is in beautiful statuary. It stands on a high mar- 
ble pedestal, round which Girardon himself ca^rved 
a bas-relief full of detail. He develops, in a skil- 
ful landscape in perspective, the mythological idea 
of the rape. Proserpine is seen by the waterside 
with her companions; Pluto arrives and carries off 
his tender burden; he hastens towards the triumphal 
car drawn by horses from the nether regions. The 
chariot is driven by Love, and from the air two little 
cupids are slyly aiming their enchanted arrows at 
the heart of the girl. The swift car of the too-ardent 

[2IS] 



VERSAILLES 

god Is preceded by the furies of the lower world, 
with hair dishevelled, and with torches in their 
hands. 

Quite close to the Colonnade is a long grove of 
trees which is entirely without ornament, but which 
once had its days of renown. It bore the name of 
the Gallery of Water or the Hall of Antiques, and 
in the days of Louis XIV. it contained a series of 
twenty-four fine figures in marble, some original, 
some copied from the antique, which alternated with 
orange-trees in pots, jets of water, and marble chan- 
nels filled with running water. Those who walked 
here enjoyed a veritable gallery of antique sculp- 
ture, chosen in accordance with the Italian taste of 
the seventeenth century; but no Roman prince in 
the days of the Grand Rot had in his villa a more 
magnificent hall than this, where the value of the 
statues was enhanced by the water that reflected 
them. 

The Gallery of Water was done away with in 
1704, and in the eighteenth century became the Hall 
of the Chestnut Trees. It still exists as it is repre- 
sented in prints of the time, with its eight busts of 
white marble on pedestals of Ranee marble, and 
its two antiques, Meleager and Antinous. A little 
further on is the Basin of the Mirror, or Vertugadin, 
which was thus called on account of its form. In 

[216] 



THE GARDEN 

the garden lore of the time Vertugadin meant "a 
slope of turf in the shape of an amphitheatre, in 
which the circular lines that terminate it are not 
parallel." This sheet of water was made in 1683, 
at the same time as a larger one — now entirely filled 
up — called the Royal Island or the Island of Love, 
on which there were pleasure boats. It is now a 
shady, mysterious grove, where a large lawn, care- 
fully tended shrubberies, and a single column sur- 
mounted by a statue of Diana, remind one the 
moment one enters of an English garden of the be- 
ginning of the nineteenth century. It dates, indeed, 
from 1817, when Louis XVIII. had the happy idea 
of making it, to drain this marshy spot. 

This grove is now called by the pretty name of 
the King's Garden. In the centre a vase copied 
from the antique rises above a number of rose-trees. 
Outside the trellis-work, among the luxuriant trees, 
are two colossal statues, the Flora Farnese and the 
Hercules Farnese, copied in Rome under Louis 
XIV. 

The wide walk that leads back towards the Palace 
is the exact counterpart of that of the Bassius of 
Ceres and Flora. Here the two other Seasons 
are equally represented by figures of Saturn and 
Bacchus. 

Saturn, as a fine old man, sad and weary, is lying 

[219] 



VERSAILLES 

upon a rocky bank covered with flowers and sea-shells. 
His great wings, the wings of Time, are outspread; 
his venerable brow is deeply furrowed, and in his 
eyes the sadness of those who have lived too long. 
His long thin form has all the life, all the softened 
realism, with which the sculptor Tubi animated his 
works. Round this stern figure are winged Loves 
with all their attractive chubbiness; they are like 
birds singing in the snow. 

A little further on is the Island of Autumn, over- 
flowing with heavy bunches of grapes. The God 
of Wine is lying amid the wealth of the grape-har- 
vest. His mysterious smile is as disquieting as that 
of a Jociende, and indeed, the youth recalls the an- 
drogynous Bacchus of Vinci. Marsy has crowned 
the delicate curly head with vine-leaves; the young 
figure is both vigorous and of a quite feminine grace ; 
round him little satyrs are playing among the ruddy 
fruit. 

Not far from here, surrounded by thick shrub- 
beries, is the Grove of the Rockeries, formerly 
known as the Ballroom, where we see tiers of 
grassy seats, and cascades arranged one above the 
other, and bubbling jets of water. Formerly there 
was in the middle a kind of arena, where dancing took 
place whenever it pleased his Majesty to give a fete 
here. This hexagonal arena, which was bounded by 

[ 220] 



THE GARDEN 

a trench ornamented with shell-work, disappeared 
long ago. The rockeries are still there, and from 
them a large number of cascades, one above the 
other; which were very effective in torch-light. 
The orchestra was arranged above them. We may 
also see the five tiers of seats for the spectators, and 
a huge decorative work in lead, which was set up 
in 1683. It is covered with large ornate vases in 
lead, and cressets in the form of tripods, delicately 
ornamented. The metal is very well preserved, and 
there are still touches of gilding on it. It is a valua- 
ble work, which gives some idea of the resources 
of the art of working in lead during the century 
when Versailles came into being, at which time, as 
we have seen, gilded lead was so often and so 
successfully used. 

It was near the Walk of Bacchus that the Laby- 
rinth was situated — formerly so famous for the wind- 
ings of its paths and for the thirty-nine fountains 
in trellised niches, where the animals of ^sop's 
Fables were represented in lead. We saw in an- 
other part of the garden, the two figures of .ffisop 
and Love, which originally belonged to this van- 
ished series. The Labyrinth, which was destroyed 
in 1775, at the time of the general replantation of 
the park under Louis XVI., became the Queen's 
Grove. Some exotic trees were brought hither, 

[221] 



VERSAILLES 

such as the Virginian tulip-trees surrounding the 
central bower, some American walnut-trees and 
oaks, and two cedars of Lebanon of the same age 
as those carried to England by the botanist Bernard 
de Fussien. 

In this charming, dusky spot, during a summer's 
night in 1784, was enacted the deceptive scene ar- 
ranged by Madame de la Motte, between Cardinal 
de Rohan and Mademoiselle Oliva, whom the prelate 
imagined to be Marie Antoinette. The story is well 
known. The adventuress, Madame de la Motte, 
being weighed down with debts, conceived the idea 
of posing as an intimate friend of the Queen, and in 
her name borrowed money on all sides. Being ex- 
tremely clever, cunning, and intelligent, she schemed 
so well that she persuaded the Cardinal de Rohan to 
believe in the possibility of a reconciliation with the 
Queen, who had long been his enemy. The credu- 
lous Rohan was even convinced, by the lady's bare 
word, that Marie Antoinette had a tender sentiment 
for him, and he even believed that Her Majesty, 
through the Comtesse de la Motte, had given him a 
rendezvous on the night of August 1 1, in the Queen's 
Grove. 

At the appointed hour the handsome Cardinal 
was among the thick trees of the Grove. The night 
was dark. A woman was waiting for him, tall and 

[ 222] 




PETIT TRIANON: THE FLOWER GARDEN 



THE GARDEN 

fair like the Queen, and with her imposing air. She 
was dressed in a robe a I'enfant made of muslin, with 
a white cape over it; her hat was a "calash" of 
Italian gauze, which shaded her face. This was 
the costume generally worn by the Queen in her 
walks. Rohan bowed, and kissed the white gar- 
ments of the woman, who gave him a rose, murmur- 
ing in a low voice some words which the Cardinal, 
in his emotion, interpreted in accordance with his 
wishes. 

This woman, who was thirty years old, extremely 
beautiful, and astonishingly like Marie Antoinette, 
was an insignificent person, a creature of the Com- 
tesse de la Motte, called Mademoiselle Oliva, and 
was ignorant of the part she was being made to play 
that evening. The Comtesse now felt that she might 
impose upon the Cardinal to any extent, and without 
further delay she asked, by the Queen's desire, she 
said, for the famous diamond necklace. Rohan pro- 
cured it, and the Queen naturally refused to pay the 
jewellers. The notorious trial that ensued brought 
disgrace upon Marie Antoinette, entirely innocent 
though she was, and contributed to bring her into 
disrepute with the public, who were already so much 
inclined to think ill of her. 

The Queen's Grove is bordered by the Mall Walk, 
where was played the ancient game of Mall, so much 

[225] 



VERSAILLES 

affected by the French and their old Court. It ends 
at the gate of the Parterre of Orange Trees. This 
great parterre is formed of six plots of grass, with a 
round basin in the middle, and it is laid out in front 
of the splendid Orangery built by Mansart. Along 
the side galleries are the three stories of the enor- 
mous structure known as the " Hundred Steps." 
These gigantic stairs, which are not less than thirty 
metres wide, seem to support the base of the Pal- 
ace, and give it on that side an additional air of 
dignity. 

Louis XIV. had a predilection for orange trees. 
He not only adorned his gardens with them, but also 
the rooms of the Palace. Le Notre had made a col- 
lection of them that was then unequalled, and 
included about six hundred specimens. In the 
summer of 1687 ^^^ Fontainebleau collection was 
brought here, including the orange tree named Le 
Bourbon, which was even then said to be five hun- 
dred years old^ and which lived until our own 
days. 

A certain number of plants of that period may still 
be found in the present collection, which contains 
fourteen hundred orange trees. With the exception 
of a hundred or so that are scattered through the 
gardens in the fine weather they are all used to orna- 
ment the Parterre of the Orangery. 

[ 226 ] 



THE GARDEN 

The Orangery, that huge structure in which they 
are sheltered through the winter, comprises a central 
gallery and two side galleries; the former is a hun- 
dred and fifty-six metres long by twelve metres fifty 
centimetres wide. This imposing mass of masonry 
was built between 1684 and 1686, and cost about 
475,000 livres. After much deliberation on the 
subject Mansart furnished the plans for the building 
and Le Notre those for the parterre. They had been 
experimenting in their common task in the Orangery 
of Chantilly, for which purpose the King had lent 
their services to the Great Conde. 

When Louis XIV. returned from Fontainebleau 
in November, 1685, the work was already sufficiently 
advanced to rouse his admiration by its beauty.' 
Dangeau thus describes his first visit to it. He re- 
lates that the equestrian statue of his Majesty, exe- 
cuted in Rome by the Cavalier Bernini, had already 
been set up on a pedestal. Louis was impatient to 
see it. " Leaving his carriage he mounted a horse 
with the object of seeing the new aqueducts. After- 
wards he walked in the Orangery, whose magnifi- 
cence he much admired. He saw the equestrian statue 
by the Cavalier Bernini, which has been placed 
there, and he thought that both man and horse were 
so badly done that he resolved, not only to move it 
from that spot, but even to break it up." 

[227] 



VERSAILLES 

The famous statue, however, was preserved. It 
became the Martins Curtius, which a very few 
ardent sight-seers seek at the end of the Piece d'Eau 
des Suisses, whither it was relegated. A slight alter- 
ation in the marble made it into the Roman hero 
throwing himself, in the Forum, into the fiery gulf. 
Its position in the gardens is in a line with Domenico 
Guidi's group The King's Renown, which stands 
now near the Basin of Neptune, in that great bisect- 
ing line that crosses the grounds from north to south, 
and is at right angles to the line of the Canal, which 
runs from east to west. The place of the rejected 
statue by Bernini in the Parterre of the Orangery 
was provisionally filled by the colossal statue of 
Louis XIV. as a Roman Emperor, by Desjardins. 
It seemed, indeed, that this privileged spot could not 
dispense with a royal figure. But soon the statue 
was placed inside the building, where we may see 
it to-day. 

The Mercure Galant, at the time of the visit of 
the Siamese ambassadors, at the end of the year 1686, 
gave the first description of the great building, which 
was barely completed; and in so doing expressed the 
sentiments of the public at that time with regard to 
the embellishments of Versailles. 

" This Orangery that is just finished, and w^as 
designed by M. Mansart, is a grand and bold 

[228] 




THE LAWN (TOPIS \ERTj 



THE GARDEN 

achievement, and has already made a great sensa- 
tion. . . . The gallery at the base of the build- 
ing is lighted by thirteen arched windows, sunk in 
the recesses of the arcade. The inside is adorned 
with no sculpture nor ornamental architecture, as 
is suitable in this class of building, and tlie work- 
manship of the vaulted roof is its chief beauty. 
. . . It is delightfully cool, and one might enjoy 
in it every kind of diversion furnished by the theatre 
without being inconvenienced by heat. It would 
even be possible to perform operas here, and even in 
several parts of the building at once without the per- 
formers incommoding each other. It was tliis that 
made the chief ambassador (of Siam) say that the 
magnificence of the King was indeed great, seeing 
that he had raised so superb a building to serve 
as a house for his orange trees. He added that 
there were many kings who had not such beautiful 
houses themselves." It is a fact that the Orangery 
was often used for dramatic performances and musi- 
cal recitals, and even at the present day it is not sel- 
dom employed for the same purposes, to which it 
lends itself very conveniently. 

It was not long before the approaches and the Par- 
terre of the Orangery were ornamented with decora- 
tive sculpture. It was Lespingola who placed the 
fourteen baskets of fruit and flowers upon the pillars 

[231] 



VERSAILLES 

that support the gate. Le Gros and Le Comte were 
entrusted with the colossal groups in stone resting 
on the four strong pillars of the double entrance to 
the gardens. The former produced Aurora and 
Cephalus, and V ertumnus and Pomona, the groups 
nearest to the town; the latter Zephyr and Flora and 
Venus and Adonis. Even inside the parterre there 
was a complete series of decorations in marble and 
bronze. Of these only four marble vases are left; 
two encircled with vine-leaves, by Le Gros and 
Buirette, and two ornamented with a garland of 
flowers, designed by Mansart and executed by Le 
Gros and Robert. 

Nothing is left for us to see inside the Orangery 
but the gigantic statue of Louis XIV., " attired in 
a Roman coat of armour and a regal mantle, and 
holding in his hand the baton of a general." Dur- 
ing the Revolution the King was changed into the 
god Mars, and his head was renewed in 1816 by the 
chisel of Lorta. In spite of tliis mutilation the work 
of Desjardins adds to the interest of this place, to 
which one comes mainly in search of the potent 
beauty of architecture, as illustrated by this majestic 
vaulted roof. 

We may regard the Orangery, its terrace, and 
its parterres, as the sumptuous finishing-touch of the 
Versailles created by Mansart and Le Notre. This 

[232] 



THE GARDEN 

was the splendid climax of a work accomplished 
after many years. 

We must not allow the perfect harmony of the 
Gardens of Versailles with the taste of the day to 
make us imagine that they were an innovation of 
the seventeenth century. We may see their geomet- 
rical design even in the miniatures and tapestries 
of the Middle Ages and the French Renaissance. 
The first principles of the esthetics of the gardens 
were laid down by our forefathers, several centuries 
before our day, though their fundamental laws were 
only fully developed in the reign of Louis XIV. Le 
Notre, born of a family of gardeners and brought 
up among the royal gardeners, was possessed of good 
traditions, which his exceptional career and his per- 
sonal genius used to the best advantage; but his mag- 
nificent work — so clear, so logical, so intelligent — 
is derived, not merely from the mind of the single 
artist, but from that of a whole race. 

To review this superb work in its perfection one 
should see it from the terrace overlooking the Oran- 
gery; from whence one may obtain some idea of the 
thought underlying the great achievement. To the 
north the great trees planted along the parterre form 
a solid barrier against the cold north winds, while 
to the south the flowers are left in the full blaze of 
the smiling sunshine. The universal symmetry of 

[233] 



VERSAILLES 

Versailles is here broken in a way that is both bold 
and admirable; and this terrace itself rises like a 
precipitous cliff fronting the wide horizon. 
I From this terrace of the Orangery one may see, 
beyond the gates of the gardens, the sheet of water 
known as the Piece des Suisses. The effect of its 
perspective from here is most happy. It shines like 
a mirror at the foot of the wooded hills of Satory, 
which recall the old days when the country about 
Versailles was entirely composed of forests. Here, 
more than anywhere else, one may evoke the past. 

This was always a favourite resort in the coolness 
of evening, and especially so in the days of Louis 
XVL, when it was a common thing to stay up dur- 
ing a great part of the night, listening to the music 
of the Swiss Guards and of the French Guards. 
Marie Antoinette, in her white dress, would walk 
about arm-in-arm with the Comtesse de Provence or 
the Comtesse d'Artois, her sister-in-law, or prefera- 
bly with her friends, Mesdames de Lamballe and de 
Polignac. The park was open to the public; and 
sometimes the imprudent Queen, accompanied by 
only one of her ladies, would wander among the 
crowd. This gave rise to scandals, libels, and pam- 
phlets; for the unhappy princess was the object of 
the hatred which until then had been reserved for 
the favourites. The calumnies connected with the 

[ 234 ] 




LOUIS XV. S INNER SITTING-ROOM 



THE GARDEN 

affair of the necklace were partly the result of these 
nocturnal fetes. But her majesty despised calumny. 
Proud of her beauty, her power, her innocence, she 
was eager in her search for pleasure, and joy, and 
success. Smilingly, disdainfully, she went on her 
way, and all unconsciously built her scaffold with 
her own hands. Meanwhile, the royal park, and the 
bright and scented gardens, were under the spell of 
the Queen's sweet voice, as her fresh laugh ran 
through the shady groves, and the long silken trains 
of her ladies rustled softly on the turf. There was 
no fear mingled with the enjoyment of pleasure 
then, for the French Monarchy was believed to be 
immortal. 

Those days were long ago. And now, in the 
silent, melancholy past, every step reminds us poign- 
antly of the past; by these motionless statues fair 
queens have walked; it was for them that the quiver- 
ing water sang in the fountains; the golden leaves 
that fall from the autumn trees are strewed with 
memories. 



[237] 



(HilVipUx iffiu^ 



THE COURT AND THE FETES OF VERSAILLES 



nOUIS XIV. created and beautified Ver- 
sailles in order to make it a place where 
he might give fetes, long before he dreamt 
of transferring to it the seat of the Mon- 
archy. The young sovereign wished to have a cha- 
teau built in accordance with his own fancy, where 
he might give finer fetes than those he had seen 
at the house of his superintendent Fouquet, the mem- 
ory of which, in his jealous pride, he was anxious 
to efface. He chose the modest hunting-box of his 
father, Louis XIII., which was built by the archi- 
tect Salomon de Bronc; he altered it completely, 
made Le Notre design some gardens for it; and when 
the work was finished — that first work that he so 
often remodelled afterwards — he displayed all his 
magnificence in fetes which have been famous ever 
since in the annals of the Court of France. 

These royal diversions, indeed, form the first events 
in the history of this house. Even while the work 

[238] 



THE COURT AND FETES 

was being carried on at Versailles Louis XIV. loved 
to conduct thither, from the Louvre or from the 
chateau of Saint-Germain, the brilliant Court that 
surrounded him in his youth. Sumptuous banquets 
often took place there after the hunt, or plays were 
acted, or balls were given in the Palace or the 
gardens. The Gazette de France is full of descrip- 
tions of such things. Versailles was inaugurated, 
so to speak, in a grand fete that lasted from the 7th 
to the 9th of May, 1664. The King was then twenty- 
five years old, and his passion for Mademoiselle de 
La Valliere was at its height. It was widely known, 
in spite of the presence of the Queens, Anne of Aus- 
tria and Marie Therese, that the fete was really got 
up for the young mistress; and the success that was 
deliberately assured to her brother the Marquis de 
La Valliere, who was the victor in tilting at the ring, 
might well have made it plain to every one. The 
choice of Versailles is to be explained by the beauty 
of the little chateau, the style of which was already 
very tasteful. " Although," says a writer of the day, 
" it has not the great size that is to be remarked in 
some of His Majesty's other Palaces, it is charming 
in every respect, everything smiles within and with- 
out, gold and marble vie with one another in their 
beauty and brilliancy. ... Its symmetry, the 
richness of its furniture, the beauty of its walks and 

[239] 



VERSAILLES 

the infinite number of its flowers and orange-trees, 
render the surroundings of this spot worthy of its 
own remarkable beauty." The Court stayed there 
before and after the fete for about ten days, and the 
King entertained there more than six hundred per- 
sons, in addition to the dancers, the actors, and the 
workmen of all kinds who had come from Paris, " so 
that they had the appearance of a small army." The 
details were arranged by Vigarani, " a gentleman 
of Modena," who was very clever in matters of 
decoration and mechanism, and was afterwards ap- 
pointed, with the modest title of the King's engineer, 
to be the manager of the Versailles fetes. 

The Due de Saint-Aignan, whose office was that 
of first gentleman of the chamber, was charged by 
the King to unite the various entertainments by a 
common idea: joined with him were M. de Ben- 
serede and President de Perigny, who together ar- 
ranged the ballet and the topical verses, and it was de- 
cided that one of the best known episodes in Orlando 
Furioso should be reproduced. The King played 
the principal part, that of Roger, who was detained 
with the brave knights his companions in the island 
of the enchantress Alcina, until the moment when 
Angelica's ring, placed on Roger's finger, released 
him from the witchcraft that held him a captive to 
pleasure. This was the subject of the three days' 

[240] 



THE COURT AND FETES 

entertainments, in which the principal scenes were 
drawn and engraved by Israel Sylvestre, and of 
which an official account was printed by His Maj- 
esty's orders, with the title: Pleasures of the En- 
chanted Island. The Royal Walk, narrower then 
than the existing tapis vert, was reserved for the vari- 
ous incidents in the fete. We may recognise to-day 
the three points where they occurred, thanks to the 
narrative of an eye-witness, who speaks thus of the 
first spot prepared for the tilting at the ring: " The 
great path that is at the end of the parterre leads to 
a very spacious circle, which is traversed by another 
path of the same width. This spot, which is five or 
six hundred paces from the Palace, was chosen as 
the most suitable for the display of the first enter- 
tainments in Alcina's enchanted palace." This was 
nearly in the middle of the Royal Walk, which here 
widened into a circular space. The representation 
of La Princesse d'Elide, or the Princess of Elis, on 
the second day, took place quite at the end of the 
walk. *'A large theatre had been put up at about 
a hundred yards below the circular space where the 
Knights had tilted at the ring." Finally, for the 
third day, the palace of Alcina, which was consumed 
by fireworks, was built on the grand rondeau, that is 
to say, the fine sheet of water at the bottom of the 
park, afterwards the Basin of Apollo, which already 

[241] 



VERSAILLES 

had its present proportions, but was adorned by no 
group of figures nor jet of water. 

On May 7, at about six o'clock in the evening, 
the Court adjourned to the spot arranged for the first 
fete. In the four avenues meeting at the circle large 
porticos had been raised, adorned inside and out with 
the arms and ciphers of His Majesty. The high dais 
had been placed at the entrance to the circle, and be- 
hind it, up the walk, benches were arranged in the 
form of an amphitheatre, to seat two hundred people. 
In the trees round the circle were hung chandeliers, 
furnished with a countless number of candles, to 
give light to the entertainment after dark. In the 
enclosure the knights of Ariosto first of all passed in 
procession before the ladies, surrounded by a splen- 
did retinue of pages, trumpeters, and drummers; 
after them came a gigantic Car of Apollo, drawn by 
four horses and driven by the King's coachman, 
carrying the attributes of Time, and surrounded by 
the twelve hours of the day and the twelve signs of 
the Zodiac, on foot. Verses were recited by the 
actors and actresses of Moliere's troupe, who repre- 
sented the Ages of gold, silver, brass, and of the god 
Apollo. Then began the game of skill, tilting at 
the ring. This was a pretext for showing off fine 
clothes and fine young men. " The King, represent- 
ing Roger, mounted one of the finest horses in the 

[242] 




MADAME ADELAIDE'S DRAWING-ROOM 



THE COURT AND FETES 

world, whose flame-coloured harness shone with 
gold, silver, and precious stones. The King, like all 
the members of his troupe, was armed in the Greek 
fashion, and wore a cuirass plated with silver and 
covered with rich embroidery in gold and diamonds. 
His bearing and all his gestures were worthy of 
his rank: his helmet, covered with flame-coloured 
plumes, was worn with incomparable grace; and 
never did a bolder or a more soldierly air make a 
mortal superior to other men." Having won ad- 
miration by several displays of his prowess, the King 
left the victory to be decided among the other 
knights; and the Due de La Valliere carried off the 
prize, which was a sword of gold enriched with 
diamonds and valuable belt-buckles, given by the 
Queen-Mother, who honoured the victor by present- 
ing it with her own hands. 

Night fell: "the camp was lit up, and, all the 
knights having retired, the Orpheus of our day ap- 
peared — you will easily understand that I refer to 
Lulli — at the head of a large troupe of musicians, 
who, having approached slowly in time to their in- 
struments, separated into two bands, to right and left 
of the high dais, close to the hedges of the circle." 
Violins played during the entrance of the four sea- 
sons, Spring being mounted upon a Spanish horse, 
while the others rode respectively an elephant, a 

[245] 



VERSAILLES 

camel and a bear. Forty-eight people, dressed suita- 
bly to the season they accompanied, bore upon their 
head basins full of viands and fruit for the ban- 
quet. Pan and Diana, supported on a little rock 
planted with trees, also appeared, with attendants, 
who offered meats derived from Pan's menagerie 
and from the hunting of Diana. Pan was repre- 
sented by Moliere. New verses were recited to the 
Queens, and then the King, Monsieur, the Queens 
and the ladies sat down at a great table covered with 
flowers and shaped like a crescent, which was a fine 
sight. 

" In the night, close to the high green hedges, 
a countless number of chandeliers painted green and 
silver, each of them furnished with twenty-four 
candles and two hundred tapers of white wax, and 
held by an equal number of people in masks, shed 
a light that was nearly as bright and was more agree- 
able than that of day. All the riders, with their 
helmets covered with plumes of various colours and 
wearing the garments they had worn during the con- 
test, leant upon the barrier; and this large number 
of richly dressed officers, who waited upon the 
guests, increased the beauty of the spectacle and 
made the circle an enchanted scene. After the ban- 
quet their Majesties and all the Court went out by 
the portico opposite the barrier, and in a great num- 

[246] 



THE COURT AND FETES 

ber of much-adorned carnages they returned to the 
Palace." 

On the following day, when night fell, they ad- 
journed to the theatre, which had also been built 
in a circle of greenery. The plan of this second fete 
was that Roger and his knights, " after having done 
wonders in the contests that they had carried on, by 
order of the beautiful enchantress, for the Queen's 
pleasure, should continue the same scheme in the next 
entertainment; and that, since the floating island had 
not left the coast of France, they should give her 
Majesty the pleasure of seeing a play of which the 
scene was laid in Elis." This fiction gave an oppor- 
tunity for Moliere's troupe to act a play, imitated 
from the Spanish, in five acts, of which only the first 
was in verse, and which included six interludes. 
The part of the Princess of Elis was taken by Mo- 
liere's wife: her husband played a burlesque part 
of some importance, that of the princess's jester; 
and the first interlude, in which this cowardly fellow 
had to defend himself against a bear, produced a 
great deal of laughter among the company. The in- 
terlude that ended the piece was an admirable ballet 
of fauns, shepherds, and " heroic shepherdesses," 
" and the whole of this scene, we are told, was so 
grand, so full of incident, and so agreeable, that 
nothing finer in the way of ballet has ever been seen." 

[247] 



VERSAILLES 

The evening of May 9 was jeserved for the most 
remarkable performances of Vigarani's machines. 
In the middle of the lake rose the castle of the en- 
chantress on a rocky island, before which were ex- 
tended two lines of illuminated rocks, where some 
tapestry fixed on spars formed the two sides of a 
sort of stage upon the water. Here the musicians 
took their places, when the Court was seated near 
the bank. " But the most surprising thing was to see 
Alcina coming from behind the rock, carried by a 
marine monster of prodigious size. Two of the 
nymphs of her suite started at the same time, and 
they approached the banks of the lake, and Alcina 
began some verses, to which her companions re- 
sponded, and which were composed in praise of the 
Queen, the King's mother. Two excellent actresses, 
Mademoiselle de Brie and Moliere's wife, repre- 
sented the nymphs of Alcina, who was Mademoiselle 
du Pare. When they had finished their recital the 
monsters took them back " towards the enchanted 
island where stood the castle, which, opening as they 
arrived, agreeably surprised the spectators by archi- 
tectural beauties of so marvellous a nature that they 
would have been thought to be the creation of 
Vigarani, if they had not been declared beforehand 
to be due to Alcina's enchantments. Then the musi- 
cians redoubled their harmonious efforts, and there 

[248] 




THE DAUPHIN S SITTING-ROOM 



THE COURT AND FETES 

became visible within the Palace some giants of pro- 
digious size, who performed the first figure of the 
ballet." There were six figures, during the last of 
which Roger appeared and received the ring that 
set him free. At the same instant a clap of thunder 
followed by lightning marked the end of the en- 
chantress's spell; and the palace of Alcina sank into 
ruins amid a splendid exhibition of fireworks, the 
effect of which was doubled by the water which re- 
flected the rockets, and by the echoes which repeated 
the noise of the mortars. 

The pleasures of the enchanted island were over. 
The King prolonged them for a few days more by 
entertainments. On May lo he wished to " hunt 
heads " in the German fashion. The knights who 
took part in this game endeavoured to carry off suc- 
cessively, at full gallop, with the lance, the javelin, 
and the sword, the head of a Turk, of a Moor, and 
of Medusa. The game took place in the dry moats 
of the little chateau. " The whole Court had taken 
up its position on a balustrade of gilded iron, which 
ran round the pleasant house of Versailles and over- 
looked the moat in which the lists had been set up 
and barricaded." The King carried off the prizes 
in two contests, but he at once gave back one, which 
was offered by the Queen to the knights who had 
been in his troupe : it was a diamond, and the Mar- 

[251] 



VERSAILLES 

quis de Noislin, who won it, received it from the 
hands of the Queen. On the following day there 
was an expedition to the Menagerie, where the King 
demanded admiration for the new buildings he had 
just built there and for a large number of rare birds. 
In the evening the King ordered a performance, on 
a stage in this salon, of Les Facheux, by Moliere, 
interspersed with ballets. On the following day 
after dinner the King made the ladies draw lots 
for " jewelry, ornaments, silver, and other similar 
things; and although it is customary for presents of 
the kind to be distributed by fate, it was no doubt 
in accordance with His Majesty's desire when the 
most fortunate number fell into the hands of the 
Queen." The spectators then saw a challenge ex- 
changed between two of the nobles who had figured 
in the proceedings of the first day, the Marquis de 
Soyecourt and the Due de Saint-Aignan. They 
tilted for heads in their costumes, and many wagers 
were laid among their partisans. M. de Saint- 
Aignan won the contest. " In the evening His Maj- 
esty ordered the performance of a comedy called 
Tartuffe, which the Sieur de Moliere had written 
against hypocrites. . . ." It included only the 
three first acts of a play that was still unknown, but 
was destined to make some noise in the world. On 
May 12 the King wished to tilt for heads again, and 

[252] 



THE COURT AND FETES 

in the evening the comedy of Le Manage Force 
was played. On May 14 the Court started for 
Fontainebleau. 

This series of entertainments had never yet been 
equalled in the annals of the Court of France; but 
the little chateau of Versailles did not at all lend 
itself to the accommodation of large crowds of cour- 
tiers; and the King, while making some happy, had 
made others discontented. We know this by Ma- 
dame de Sevigne's first testimony — indirectly given 
it is true — with regard to Versailles. Oliver d'Or- 
messon says in his memoirs: "Madame de Sevigne 
described to us the entertainments at Versailles, 
which lasted from the Wednesday to the Sunday, 
and included tilting at the ring, ballets, plays, fire- 
works, and other very fine conceits ; and told us that 
all the courtiers were in a fury because the King 
did not take care of any of them, and MM. de Guise 
and d'Elbeuf had scarely a hole to take shelter in." 
The village of Versailles, with its inns only fit for 
carriers, offered few resources, truly, for the cour- 
tiers who followed the King. Who would have 
thought that, twenty years later, a large town would 
have appeared there? 

Some portions of this fete of 1664 were repeated 
in the following years, which were the most brilliant 
in the life of the young Court. In 1665, in which 

[253] 



VERSAILLES 

year the King stayed several times at Versailles, and 
organised hunts, plays, balls, and feasts, a play was 
given on June 13, followed by a ball in a large salon 
built of foliage in the Royal Walk by Vigarani, and 
lighted by a hundred crystal chandeliers. In the 
month of July the Queen of England, who had come 
to France for the confinement of Madame, her 
daughter, paid a visit to Versailles, remaining there 
for five days with her household, and being mag- 
nificently entertained by the King. In September 
the Court kept the Feast of St. Hubert there, which 
lasted for four days; there was a great hunting 
expedition, in which the Queen, Madame, Made- 
moiselle, Mademoiselle d'Alengon, and the other 
ladies appeared dressed as Amazons, and a play with 
a ballet was acted, which was the first performance 
of Moliere's UAmour medecin. 

In 1667 the entertainments at the end of the Car- 
nival took place there, and on this occasion there was 
a repetition of the tilting at heads, and the proces- 
sion of brilliant knights in those rich and fan- 
tastic costumes that Louis XIV. loved to wear. On 
the day of these revels some of the beauties of the 
Court were on horseback, " all admirably equipped, 
and led by Madame, who wore a most superb waist- 
coat, and was mounted on a white horse caparisoned 
in brocade, which, like her own habit, was sewn 

[254] 



THE COURT AND FETES 

with pearls and precious stones. The King followed 
after, and was easily recognisable, no less by the dig- 
nified mien that is peculiar to him, than by his rich 
Hungarian costume, covered with gold and precious 
stones, with a helmet to match waving with plumes; 
and also by the pride of his horse, which seemed 
more arrogant at carrying so great a monarch than 
it was of the magnificence of its trappings and the 
cloth that covered it, which were equally covered 
with precious stones." Monsieur as a Turk, and 
the Due d'Enghien as an Indian, rode near the King, 
and the nobles followed in six companies. They 
rode round the camp, which had been arranged in 
front of the little brick orangery, and after saluting 
the Queen and the Princesses, who were all hand- 
somely dressed in costume, the King began the tilt- 
ing and was followed by all the Knights. The game 
was watched by a great number of foreigners whom 
the King had invited, and who were seated on the 
terraces. 

It was only natural, after days spent in this way, 
that Versailles should appear in the public imagina- 
tion as the place consecrated above all others to Louis 
XIV.'s fetes. The reputation that this place had 
then is well indicated by a contemporary writer. 
" It is indeed a good and pleasant thing to see the 
King in this beautiful wilderness, giving little fetes 

[257] 



VERSAILLES 

prompted by gallantry, or those others that astonish 
the spectators by their magnificence, by their novelty, 
by their pomp, by the multitude of brilliant enter- 
tainments, by the variety of music, by the v^ater and 
the fireworks, by the abundance of everything, and 
above all by the open-air palaces, w^hich are really 
like enchanted spots in v^hich the union of nature and 
art is completely unstudied. . . . But any one 
who saw the King during the campaign in Flanders 
will admire him a thousand times more among his 
pleasures than those who never saw him in time of 
war . . . surprising the first captains in the 
world by his capacity, charming every one, includ- 
ing the soldiers in the ranks, by his heroic familiar- 
ity) g*^ing to the trenches with intrepid firmness, 
resisting fatigue, sleeplessness, and all the most pain- 
ful circumstances of war, and doing all this with the 
same ease and the same gaiety with which he ar- 
ranges the fetes of Versailles! " It is Mademoiselle 
de Scudery who writes in this way, thereby faith- 
fully echoing the opinion of the general public, who 
flattered the young King to excess. 

In 1668 Versailles was the scene of Louis XIV.'s 
grandest fete, the most sumptuous he ever gave. It 
lasted for one day only, or rather for one night, that 
of July 18, and it cost more than a hundred thou- 
sand French livres. Ten years later the public at 

[ 258 ] 



THE COURT AND FETES 

large were enabled to see the principal episode in 
the fete by means of five large prints engraved by Le 
Pautre. This shows us that it was remembered for 
a long time, and indeed it marked the most brilliant 
moment of Louis XIV.'s youth. It took place two 
months and a half after the Peace of Aix-la- 
Chapelle. The King wished to compensate the 
Court for the loss of the pleasures of the Carnival, 
which the war had prevented. He desired at the 
same time to appear before Madame de Montespan 
in all the splendour with which the victories of 
Conde and Luxembourg had invested him. Louise 
de La Valliere, who was to repent soon after this 
and become a nun, was still at Court, but already it 
was to please another than her that the fetes of 
Versailles were given. 

The King himself chose the parts of the garden 
that were to be used, and decided upon the enter- 
tainments, in which the water that had lately been 
brought to Versailles at great cost was to be the chief 
interest. These beautiful waters had contributed 
more than any other device to the remodelling of 
the decorations of Versailles; and this was an excel- 
lent occasion to show them sparkling everywhere in 
these lovely gardens where, ten years earlier, noth- 
ing was to be seen but marshes. The parts of the 
various organisers were apportioned to them. The 

[259] 



VERSAILLES 

Due de Crequi, first gentleman of the Chamber, was 
charged with all that concerned the stage; the Mar- 
shal de Bellefond, first maitre d'hotel to the King, 
was to manage the banquet and the supper; and Col- 
bert, as superintendent of the King's buildings, was 
entrusted with the various erections and the fire- 
works. He distributed the work between the archi- 
tects of the theatre, the supper-room, and the ball- 
room. 

On the appointed day the King came from Saint 
Germain to dine at Versailles with the Queen, the 
Dauphin, Monsieur the King's brother, and Ma- 
dame (Henrietta of England). The rest of the 
Court arrived in the afternoon, and the officers of 
the King's household offered refreshments to every 
one in the rooms of the ground-floor, the principal 
ladies being shown to private rooms, where they 
might rest. At about six o'clock the King, the Queen, 
and the whole Court went out to the Grand Parterre, 
and in a moment this charming multitude of beauti- 
ful and richly dressed people dispersed into every 
part of the gardens. With them the King passed in 
front of the Grotto of Tethys, a marvel of rockwork 
and playing waters, and went down across the grass 
to the Basin of the Dragon, to point out the figures 
of gilded lead that had just been placed there. 
Then, passing through the groves of young trees, the 

[260] 



THE COURT AND FETES 

shade of which was already fairly thick, they assem- 
bled in a sort of labyrinth, the centre of which was 
arranged as an open-air room, at the junction of five 
paths. 

The basin that was there was covered by five 
buffets supported by the fountain, of which each 
presented quite an unexpected appearance: one was 
a mountain whose caves were filled with various 
kinds of cold meats; another was a palace built of 
almond cake and sugared pastry. Between the 
buffets were vases containing shrubs, which bore 
preserved fruit. Neither was there any lack of 
fresh fruit: it was arranged, still growing upon the 
trees, in hedges along the five paths: in one, pears 
of all kinds might be picked; in another, Dutch 
gooseberries; in the third were apricots and peaches; 
in the fourth, oranges and cherries, and the fifth 
was bordered throughout its length with Portuguese 
orange-trees. The most diverse tastes might be satis- 
fied and the eyes, too, were charmed, for at the end 
of each path a flowered niche was arranged, adorned 
with the King's cipher, and sheltering gilded fig- 
ures of sylvan divinities, which were very effective 
against the green background of the hedges. 

After their Majesties had been some time in this 
charming place and the ladies had refreshed them- 
selves, the King allowed the people who were fol- 

[263] 



VERSAILLES 

lowing him about to pillage the tables; and the de- 
struction of such a fine display furnished the Court 
with another very pleasant amusement, on account 
of the hurry and confusion of those w^ho demolished 
these castles of almond cake and mountains of 
preserves. The King then stepped into his caleche, 
the Queen into her chaise, and the Court into car- 
riages, and they drove round the Basin of the Foun- 
tain of Swans, which is at the end of the Royal Walk 
opposite the Palace. Here, though the group of the 
Car of Apollo was not yet set up, there was a large 
spout of water composed of a number of jets. Fol- 
lowing other paths they arrived at the space where 
Vigarani had put up the theatre. The hall was 
capable of holding nearly three thousand spectators. 
The outside was entirely made of foliage, the inside 
was hung with the most beautiful tapestry belonging 
to the Crown, and lighted by thirty-two crystal chan- 
deliers. On the two sides of the stage two statues, 
Victory and Peace, did homage to the fortunate con- 
queror of Flanders and Franche-Comte. The first 
scene in the theatre showed a splendid garden, orna- 
mented with canals and cascades, with a palace 
and a distant landscape. Refreshments were again 
offered at the entrance to the theatre : then an amus- 
ing comedie by Moliere was played. The scenery 
in the theatre was changed several times, and the play 

[264] 



THE COURT AND FETES 

was interwoven with a symphony in several parts, 
sung by the most beautiful voices, and with various 
very amusing ballets. The last ballet, in which 
more than a hundred persons were performing 
on the stage at the same time, which had never 
been seen before in France, represented the Triumph 
of Bacchus, and was set to the music of Lulli. The 
comedy mentioned above was by Moliere, who had 
taken advantage of the theatrical conventions of the 
day to mingle the pastoral scenes of the ballet and the 
final mythological scene with the two acts of a 
bourgeois comedy that was not wanting in gaiety. It 
treated of the troubles "of a rich peasant married to 
the daughter of a country gentleman." This was 
none other than Georges Dandin. 

On leaving the theatre the Court made its way to 
another junction of paths in the park, there to watch 
from afar the illumination of an octagonal room 
composed of foliage, covered with a dome, and 
adorned with gilded figures, trophies, and bas-reliefs. 
The interior of it was a magic scene, with its endless 
effects of water and light. In the centre of the room 
a large rock, surmounted by a figure of Pegasus and 
studded with silver figures of Apollo and the Muses, 
represented Parnassus: flowing cascades bubbled 
from its summit, and forming four little rivers ran 
out upon grassy lawns. The whole building was 

[26s] 



VERSAILLES 

made of foliage, with the exception of eight pilasters 
at the angles, which supported marble shells by which 
the water was returned. The cornice supported por- 
celain vases full of flowers, alternately with large 
crystal balls, and from it garlands of flowers were 
suspended by scarves of silver gauze. Opposite the 
entrance was the principal buffet in an arbour of con- 
siderable size, and on it was the King's most beautiful 
china and plate, with twenty-four enormous basins of 
chased silver, divided from each other by as many 
large silver vases, cressets, and candelabra. There 
were also some high silver stands, recently made at 
the Gobelins, on which were other candelabra lighted 
with ten candles of white wax. The King took up 
his position in front of the rock, round which 
tables had been arranged to accommodate sixty 
people. 

The banquet was of five courses, each of fifty-six 
large dishes ! In the neighbouring paths the Queen's 
private table was laid under awnings, and many other 
tables were prepared for the ladies. There were 
three for the ambassadors in the Grotto of Tethys, 
and there were other profusely laden tables in various 
parts of the park, where any one might eat. We will 
only mention the table of the Duchesse de Mont- 
ausier, at which were seated Madame de Montespan, 
the beautiful Madame de Ludres, Mademoiselle de 

[266] 



THE COURT AND FETES 

Scudery and Madame Scarron, afterwards Madame 
de Maintenon. To the King's table, where the 
Duchesse de la Valliere was seated, the Marquis de 
Sevigne had been invited with her daughter, after- 
wards Madame de Grignan. 

The King, having risen from the table, left the 
room by a portico that faced the Palace, and in a 
couple of hundred paces reached the ballroom. 
This was not, like the supper-room, made of foliage, 
but was a magnificent eight-walled building, faced 
outside and in with marble and porphyry, and orna- 
mented with garlands of flowers. "There is no 
palace in the world," cried Mademoiselle de Scud- 
ery, " that has a room so fine, so large, so high, and so 
superb." There were six rows of seats arranged in 
the form of an amphitheatre, the back of which was 
a grotto of rockwork. The decorative figures in 
plaster or pasteboard, at which the good sculptors of 
the King's buildings had worked their best, repre- 
sented Arion, Orpheus singing among the nymphs, 
and eight women, who held in their hands various 
instruments on which they seemed to be playing the 
dance-music for the ball. It was here that the effect 
of the water was most curious. It flowed from the 
pedestals of the statues, from the back of the grottoes, 
and all along a path that opened out on one side of 
the hall. This path, which was flanked by little 

[269] 



VERSAILLES 

rooms with termini standing at their entrances, ap- 
peared to go back a long way. Quite at the end 
there was a grotto of rocks with gilded figures of 
marine deities, in which were some fine sheets of 
water, which, after falling into several successive 
basins, divided into two, and flowed along the path 
in two channels of marble, to be united once more in 
a basin at the entrance of the salon. A large jet of 
water in the basin, and sixteen smaller ones, gushed 
from the channels and helped to enhance the effect. 
The splendour of the hall was worthy of its surround- 
ings. There was a marvellous effect of crystal 
chandeliers and pyramids of candles in that great 
hall, where the brilliancy of the waters emulated the 
beauty of the lights, and the sound of the fountains 
harmonised with the violins. 

A still more astonishing spectacle brought the fete 
to an end. After the ball the King and Court 
climbed the steps of die Horse-shoe round the Basin 
of Latona, and found there some magnificent illu- 
minations, for which no visible preparations during 
the day had prepared the spectators. " After having 
passed along several paths whose comparative dark- 
ness served to increase the brilliancy of the sight that 
followed, and on arriving at a magnificent terrace 
whence both the Palace and the terraces that form 
an amphitheatre of gardens are visible, the spectators 

[270] 



THE COURT AND FETES 

saw a prodigious change which had taken place in 
everything. It may be affirmed that no night was 
ever made so beautiful and so brilliant as that one. 
For indeed the Palace seemed to be a veritable Palace 
of the Sun, for it was luminous everywhere, and all 
the windows seemed to be filled with the most beau- 
tiful statues of antiquity, but statues that were lumi- 
nous and of various colours, which shed a great light." 
All the balustrades and terraces of the different gar- 
dens, which were usually bordered with porcelain 
vases filled with flowers, were now edged with vases 
that blazed with light, which ornamented, and at the 
same time, lit up the vast extent of the parterres. In 
addition to the statues of the Palace and the vases of 
the terraces and the balustrades, there appeared in the 
gardens below rows of glowing termini, luminous 
colossal figures, statues and caducei twined with 
fire, etc. 

We will again quote a contemporary narrative: 
*' As though it were not enough to charm the eye with 
the illumination of so many stationary objects, the 
crash of a thousand mortars was suddenly heard, and 
was followed by a thousand jets of fireworks, which 
were seen rising from the basins, the fountains, the 
flower-beds, the green woods, and a hundred differ- 
ent places. The two elements, water and fire, were 
so closely mingled together that it was impossible to 

[271] 



VERSAILLES 

distinguish them. When a thousand flames were 
seen issuing from the earth and rising in every direc- 
tion, it seemed possible that there were as many canals 
spurting Are that night as had supplied jets of water 
during the day. This surprise created a pleasant dis- 
turbance among the spectators, and only lasted long 
enough to imprint upon the mind a fine impression 
of what water and fire can do when they meet and 
contend with one another. Then every one, thinking 
that this marvellous show of fireworks must be the 
end of the fete, was returning towards the Palace, 
when suddenly the sky was filled with flashes and the 
air with a noise that seemed to make the earth shake. 
Every one stood still to see this fresh surprise, and im- 
mediately a huge number of large rockets shot into 
the air. There were even some that marked out the 
King's cipher as they turned and twisted, tracing the 
double L brilliantly in the air in vivid and clear 
light." At last all these lights were extinguished, 
when the day, " jealous of the advantages of so beau- 
tiful a night," began to appear. 

Such was the fete of 1668, the first apotheosis of 
Versailles. Almost immediately afterwards the 
order was given to remodel the house and its gardens. 
It was at this period that the young King began to 
dream of preparing a more glorious future for Ver- 
sailles, and of moving die Court and Government 

[272] 



THE COURT AND FETES 

thither. When he had realised this desire the fetes 
at Versailles became more numerous, and formed one 
of the chief titles to fame of the French Court, which 
was envied by foreign Courts for its magnificence 
and good taste, and was imitated by all. The fetes 
of Louis XIV., and, later on, those of Louis XV., 
were copied, in the same way that palaces and gardens 
in imitation of those at Versailles were built every- 
where in Europe, and especially in the principalities 
of Germany. 

Every year the Carnival was the chief occasion for 
rejoicings. The masked balls given by the King, the 
Dauphin (Monseigneur), the princes, and some of 
the great seigneurs^ were frequent and gave much 
pleasure. The gazettes spread detailed accounts of 
them in the provinces and abroad. During the Car- 
nival of 1683, which we will mention as an example, 
five large and remarkable balls were given in five 
different suites of apartments in Versailles. The first 
was given by the Grand Ecuyer; Monseigneur ap- 
peared there at first carried in a chair and accom- 
panied by a large number of Punches and dwarfs; 
then he went away and changed his costume, and re- 
appeared four times with his suite, in different dis- 
guises. 

It was he himself who gave the second Court 
ball in the Hall of the Guards, which served as an 

[2751 



VERSAILLES 

ante-room to his apartments. Monsieur le Due, son 
of the great Conde, gave the third, which was mag- 
nificent. Lulli, dressed as a Moor, beat time and con- 
ducted the King's violinists, who were also dressed as 
Moors. Presently Bacchus and Silenus appeared, 
and the goat belonging to Bacchus' suite. Silenus 
was represented as a harlequin mounted on a donkey, 
which was caparisoned with vine-branches and 
grapes; while Bacchus, whose part was played by a 
professional comedian, was covered with hams, sau- 
sages, bottles, etc., and was carried on a barrel by two 
satyrs. Bacchus and Silenus made a very agreeable 
diversion, and finally they quarrelled, while the don- 
key and the goat began to fight, which amused the 
spectators very much. 

A few days afterwards it devolved upon the Car- 
dinal de Bouillon in his turn to receive the Court. 
He was Grand Almoner of France, and in this 
capacity was a great dignitary of the Crown. Fi- 
nally, the fifth and last ball was given by the witty 
Marquise de Thianges, Madame de Montespan's 
sister. 

Among other masquerades that amused the guests 
was the entrance of " some mantelpiece orna- 
ments," consisting of seven pieces of porcelain. 
There were pots and grotesque figures from China. 
These pieces of porcelain were represented by persons 

[276] 



THE COURT AND FETES 

of the first rank; and one may see here a sign of the 
fashion that was then coming in for curiosities from 
the Far East. 

At one of the masked balls of 1685 the Dauphin 
arrived in the dress of a mountebank, and on simply 
pulling a little cord he instantly appeared in the gar- 
ments of a Chinese grandee. Every year new de- 
velopments and new masquerades were invented, 
with the help of Berain, the clever organiser of the 
King's Menus-Plaisirs. For the rest, all the Carni- 
vals were alike, and it is enough to have given some 
interesting examples of the customs of the Court. 
We will merely mention that on February 24, 1699, 
three thousand masks were counted in Monsieur's 
apartment, and in 1700 the Duchesse de Maine, being 
about to be confined and obliged to stay in bed, 
gave twenty balls in her own room during the 
Carnival. 

The same customs prevailed at the bals pares or 
ranges as at the masked balls, which were always sub- 
ject to very severe rules and regulations, at all events 
under Louis XIV., and were really artistic spectacles. 
The company were arranged in the form of an 
oblong: on one side of it was the King's arm-chair 
(or three arm-chairs when the King and Queen of 
England were present), and in a line with him on 
each side was the royal family, down to the rank of 

[277] 



VERSAILLES 

the grandson of France inclusively. Sometimes in 
the confusion of the ball the Princesses of the Blood, 
on the pretext of speaking to some one at the side or 
at the back, would come up and take the places at the 
end. The ladies of the Queen's household in order 
of precedence, those with titles first and then the 
others, occupied the two long sides to right and left. 
Opposite the King were the dancers, the Princes of 
the Blood, and others. All the ladies seated in the 
oblong had to dance, in accordance with an order 
issued by the King. The Princes of the Blood, who 
did not dance at all, were seated with the courtiers 
behind the ladies; and in the case of masked balls 
every one at first stood with face uncovered, mask in 
hand. Some time after the ball had begun, if there 
were to be fresh entries or changes of costume, those 
concerned left the room in different parties, and re- 
turned masked, so that no one could tell afterwards 
who any particular person was. 

Dancing in those days was a difficult and serious 
affair. A great deal of study, a great deal of taste, 
and beauty as well, were required to give grace to the 
stiff and formal movements of the pavane and the 
minuet; and to be a good performer in these dances, 
which were always very serious and altogether lack- 
ing in quick motion, and were composed of steps in 
every direction, and majestic curtseys. The best in- 

[ 278 ] 



THE COURT AND FETES 

structed ladies in this art were summoned to the 
Court, and among the princesses who excelled in it 
was the young Duchesse de Bourgogne. 

After the Carnival came Lent, which was kept very 
strictly by order of the King. All fetes and amuse- 
ments came to an end, and were replaced by numer- 
ous pious exercises and sermons, among others the 
severe sermons of Bourdaloue against excessive card- 
playing, which was the greatest evil of the Court, and 
in which the princes and princesses themselves too 
often gave a bad example. 

Throughout the year the Court had its reception 
days, a custom that was not yet established in any 
other Court in Europe, and served as an example to 
other sovereigns. On the occasions called the ap- 
partement the whole Court was assembled from six 
or seven o'clock in the evening until ten, the hour at 
which the King went to supper. These gatherings 
took place in the great reception-rooms extending 
from one of the salons at the upper end of the Grand 
Gallery to the vicinity of the gallery of the Chapel, 
which occupied until 1710 the space where Louis 
XV. made the Hall of Hercules. " The King," says 
the Mercure Galant, " grants admission to his great 
apartments at Versailles on the Monday, Wednesday, 
and Thursday of every week, for the playing of every 
sort of game, and these days are called jours d'ap- 

[281] 



VERSAILLES 

partement. All the guests arrive at the hour ap- 
pointed for their reception in these superb rooms. 
No one presents himself without knowing beforehand 
that he is assured of admission. Some choose one 
game and others are attracted by another; others 
again only wish to watch the games, while there are 
those who prefer to walk about, admiring the scene 
and the splendour of the great rooms. Although 
these are filled with people no one is to be seen there 
who is not of distinguished rank, whether man or 
woman. Every one is permitted to talk, and the 
guests make conversation together as they choose. 
Respect, nevertheless, demands that no one should 
raise his voice too much, and thus there is no exces- 
sive noise. The King, the Queen, and all the Royal 
House condescend from their dignified position to 
play games with many of the guests who have never 
experienced such an honour. The sovereign goes 
from one game to another; he does not wish any one 
to rise at his approach, nor to interrupt the game. 
When the players are tired of one game they play 
another. Then they listen to music or watch while 
others dance; they converse together; they go into the 
refreshment-room or the supper-room. The manner 
in which they are waited upon is more agreeable 
than is customary, so assiduous are the servants who 
stand behind the card-tables, and hand the cards, the 

[282] 



THE COURT AND FETES 

counters, and anything required by the play- 
ers. ..." 

Here we see the beginning of those usages of good 
society which were gradually to become the custom 
in every Court of Europe, and were at last to be the 
rule in every circle of distinction. The customs of 
polite society were about to undergo a real trans- 
formation, to which the charm and refinement of the 
Court of France contributed not a little. 



[283] 



HOW LOUIS XIV. SPENT HIS DAY AT 

VERSAILLES; HIS HABITS AND 

HIS CHARACTER 

©HERE is a certain curiosity attaching to 
the details of the life of that sovereign 
whom the French justly call the ''Grand 
Rot/' who is chiefly interesting to us in this 
book as the creator of Versailles. We like to know 
how he lived, how he passed his days, and how his 
friends and subjects were permitted to see him and 
approach him. The memoirs of the day, the journal 
of the Marquis de Dangeau, and above all the famous 
writings of the Due de Saint-Simon, supply us with 
all the information necessary to satisfy our curiosity. 
With their help we will describe how Louis XIV. 
spent an entire day towards the second part of his 
reign — a simple, ordinary day, without any Court 
functions or exceptional ceremonies, by which we 
shall see more plainly what Saint-Simon calls the 
" mechanism " of the King's life. This account will 
teach us at the same time the uses of the different 

[284] 



LOUIS XIV. 

rooms in the Palace, and will be of considerable 
value to such as visit Versailles in the desire of form- 
ing a mental picture of life in the past. 

At eight o'clock the first valet-de-chambre for the 
quarter, who was the only attendant who slept in the 
King's room, drew back the curtains by which the bed 
was entirely surounded, and woke his Majesty. The 
first physician, the first surgeon, and the woman who 
was his nurse as long as she lived, entered the room at 
the same time. The nurse embraced him, and the 
others rubbed him, and often changed his shirt. At 
a quarter past eight the Grand Chamberlain was sum- 
moned, or in his absence the First Gentleman of the 
Chamber for the year, together with the courtiers 
and people of importance who had the right of the 
grandes entrees. The Grand Chamberlain or First 
Gentleman drew the curtains, which had been closed 
again, and presented the holy water from the vessel 
at the head of the bed. These gentlemen were there 
for a little time, and this was their opportunity for 
speaking to the King if they had anything to say to 
him or to ask; in which case the others went away. 
When there was no one who wished to speak to him, 
as was most usual, they only stayed a few moments. 
The one who had drawn the curtains and presented 
the holy water, presented the book of the Ofiice of 
the Holy Ghost, and then they all passed out into the 

[285] 



VERSAILLES 

Council Room. As soon as he had read this very 
short office the King called to them, and they re- 
turned. The same official gave him his dressing- 
gown, and meanwhile the secondes entrees took place, 
followed a few minutes later by the entrees de la 
Chambre. The most distinguished persons entered 
first, and then every one else, and found the King 
putting on his shoes and stockings, for he did nearly 
everything for himself, both skilfully and gracefully. 
Every second day they watched him shaving; and at 
this time he always wore a short little peruke, for he 
never at any time, even in bed when he had taken 
medicine, appeared in public without a peruke. He 
often spoke of the chase, and sometimes he addressed 
a word or two to some one. There was no toilet-table 
near him ; a looking-glass was simply held up before 
him. 

As soon as he was dressed he said his prayers by the 
bedside, and all the clergy who were present, and any 
cardinals who had no special distinction, fell upon 
their knees. All the laymen remained standing, and 
tlie Captain of the Guard stood near the railing dur- 
ing the prayers of the King, who afterwards passed 
out into his Cabinet. This room was restored and 
enlarged under Louis XV. There he found all those 
who had the right of admission to the Cabinet except 
those who followed him in. This right was very 

[286] 



LOUIS XIV. 

widely enjoyed on account of the number of officials, 
all of whom possessed it. There he gave every one 
his orders for the day; and thus it was known how 
the King intended to spend nearly every minute of 
the day from morning to evening. Every one then 
left the room, except the King's illegitimate sons, 
MM. de Montchevreuil and d'O, who had been their 
tutors, and the architect Mansart, who had been ap- 
pointed Superintendent of Buildings. Later on he 
was succeeded by the Due d'Autin in this important 
post. The King liked at this hour to talk over the 
works and buildings that he was continually ordering 
at his various chateaux and to inspect the plans, 
which he discussed and corrected. Every one, at this 
hour of the morning, entered the King's Cabinet, not 
through the bedroom, but by " the back way," 
through the rooms of the Valets of the Inner Apart- 
ments. This was a pleasant time for all who were 
admitted to the Cabinet, and was the time when all 
the schemes for the gardens and buildings were 
thought out. It lasted for a longer or shorter time 
according to the King's business. 

Meantime the whole Court was waiting in the 
Great Gallery. The Captain of the Guard was alone 
in the bedroom, seated at the door of the Cabinet. 
He was told when the King wished to go to Mass, 
and then he entered the Cabinet. 

[287] 



VERSAILLES 

It was during this interval that the King gave audi- 
ences, if he had granted any, or if he wished to speak 
to any one, and also gave secret audiences to foreign 
ministers, in the presence of M. de Torcy, Secretary 
of State for Foreign Affairs. These audiences were 
only called secret to distinguish them from those that 
were held unceremoniously at the King's bedside 
after he had said his prayers, which were called 
private audiences, and also from those of ceremony, 
which were also accorded to ambassadors. 

The King left the room by tlie door of looking- 
glass that led into the Gallery, and passing through 
the State apartments, followed by his courtiers, he 
went to hear Mass, at which his choir always sang a 
motet. He sat in the large gallery on a level with 
the apartments, and only went down into the choir on 
days of festival or on ceremonious occasions. As he 
walked to and from the Chapel any one who wished 
might speak to him freely after having applied to the 
Captain of the Guard, except in the case of distin- 
guished people, who might address him without in- 
tervention. The King returned to his private rooms 
by the same door in the Gallery. While he was hear- 
ing Mass the ministers were summoned, and assem- 
bled in the King's room, where people of distinction 
could go up and talk to them on matters of business or 
pleasure. The King's leisure, after he returned from 

[288] 



ij 



LOUIS XIV. 

Mass, was very short, and almost at once he sum- 
moned his Council. This was the end of what was 
called the matinee. 

The King worked a great deal and very conscien- 
tiously at affairs of State, to assist him in which he had 
succeeded in surrounding himself with the most able 
ministers and councillors. Nearly every day of the 
week he held a long council in his Cabinet. On Sun- 
day there was a Council of State, and often on Mon- 
day also; on Tuesday a financial council; on Wed- 
nesday a Council of State ; and on Saturday a financial 
council. Thursday morning was nearly always free. 
This was the day when the King gave audiences, most 
commonly audiences of which the Court did not 
know, the favoured person being introduced by the 
"back way." This was also a great day for the 
King's illegitimate sons, and for the building depart- 
ment and the Valets of the Inner Rooms, because the 
King had nothing to do. On Friday after Mass was 
the time for the King's confession, which had no 
limits and might last until dinner-time. The in- 
fluence exercised over the King in these Interviews 
by the famous Jesuit, Pere de la Chaise, is well 
known. 

The King nearly always ate his dinner au petit 
convert, that is to say alone in his room, at a square 
table opposite the middle window. It was more or 

[289] 



VERSAILLES 

less abundant; for in the morning he ordered petit 
convert or tres-petit convert. Even the latter always 
consisted of many dishes, and of three courses as well 
as a dessert of fruit. As soon as the meal was served 
the principal courtiers entered, and after them every 
one who was at all known. Then the first Gentleman 
of the Chamber went to summon the King, and 
waited upon him if the Grand Chamberlain was not 
present. 

Saint-Simon says that he very rarely saw the 
Dauphin (Monseigneur) and his sons at these private 
dinners, and that the King never asked them to sit 
down. The Princes of the Blood and the cardinals 
were often there, and Monsieur the King's brother 
fairly often, when he came from his chateau at Saint- 
Cloud to see the King, or after he had been attending 
the Conseil des Depeches, the only council in which 
he took part. He handed a napkin to the King, and 
remained standing. Presently the King, seeing that 
he did not go away, asked him if he would not sit 
down; he bowed, and the King ordered a seat to be 
brought for him. A stool was placed behind him, 
and after a few moments the King said to him: 
" Mon frere, pray sit down." He bowed, and re- 
mained seated until the end of the meal, when he 
again gave a napkin to the King. At other times, 
when he came from Saint-Cloud, the King when he 

[290] 




PETIT TRIANON 



•I 



LOUIS XIV. 

sat down would order a place to be laid for Monsieur, 
or would ask him if he would not like some dinner. 
If he declined the honour he went away a moment 
afterwards without there being any question of giv- 
ing him a seat; if he accepted, the King ordered a 
place to be laid for him. The table was square, 
and Monsieur sat at one side, with his back to the 
Cabinet. 

Then the Grand Chamberlain or the first Gentle- 
man of the Chamber filled Monsieur's glass and 
handed plates to him, and removed those that he put 
aside, as he did for the King; but Monsieur received 
all these attentions with marked politeness, showing 
by his behaviour that in the King's presence, although 
he was his brother, he was conscious of his very in- 
ferior position. If the Princes of the Blood attended 
the King's lever, as they sometimes did, they per- 
formed the duties of the first Gentleman of the 
Chamber themselves, and when it was to Monsieur 
that this honour fell he showed great satisfaction. 
When he dined with the King he talked a good deal 
and enlivened the conversation very much. Al- 
though seated at the table he handed the napkin to 
the King at the beginning and end of the meal. The 
King, although he spoke a few words now and then, 
generally talked very little while at his dinner, unless 
some of the nobles who were his special friends were 

[293] 



VERSAILLES 

present. With them he talked a little more, as he 
did at his lever. 

The dinner au grand convert was extremely rare, 
and only occurred on the occasion of grand fetes, or 
sometimes at Fontainebleau, when the Queen of Eng- 
land was there. No lady but one, and she very 
seldom, came to the private dinners. The exception 
was the Marechale de la Mothe-Houdancourt, who 
had been the King's governess. As soon as she ap- 
peared a seat was brought for her, and she sat down, 
for she was a duchess by letters patent, and had the 
right of the tabouret, the right, that is to say, of sitting 
down in the presence of the King and Queen. On 
leaving the table, Louis XIV. at once returned to 
his Cabinet. This was one of the moments when 
persons of distinction might speak to him. He 
paused for a moment to listen; then he entered, and 
very rarely some one followed him, but never with- 
out asking permission, which very few dared 
to do. 

Then he took up his position, with the man who fol- 
lowed him, in the embrasure of the window nearest 
to the door of the Cabinet, which was immediately 
closed, and which the man who was talking to the 
King opened for himself when he went out. At this 
hour the King was again visited by his children and 
the Valets of the Inner Rooms, and sometimes by the 

[294] 



LOUIS XIV. 

architects of the building department, who waited in 
the rooms at the back. The chief physician was al- 
ways present at the dinner and followed the King into 
his Cabinet. Monseigneur came at this hour too, if 
he had not seen the King in the morning. He en- 
tered and left by the door into the Galley. Thus we 
see that the habits and the rights of every one were 
minutely regulated. 

It amused the King to feed his setters, and he stayed 
with them for a certain time; then he asked for 
the attendants connected with the Wardrobe, and 
changed his clothes in the presence of the very small 
number of distinguished people whom it pleased the 
First Gentleman of the Chamber to admit. Imme- 
diately afterwards the King went out through the 
rooms at the back and down his private staircase into 
the Marble Court to his carriage. As he walked 
from the foot of this staircase to the carriage any one 
who would might speak to him, and this was also the 
case as he returned. 

The King was extremely fond of fresh air, and 
when he was deprived of it he suffered in health, be- 
ing subject to headaches and depression caused by his 
former excessive use of perfumes; indeed, he had 
once carried their abuse so far that for many years he 
had not been able to endure any scent but that of 
orange-flowers, and the courtiers and ladies had to 

[295] 



VERSAILLES 

be extremely careful to use none, in case they should 
be obliged to go near him. 

As he was very insensible to differences in tempera- 
ture, and even to rain, it was only when the weather 
was especially inclement that he was prevented from 
going out every day. His outings had only three 
objects: first, hunting the stag with his pack of 
hounds, which he did once a week, and often more, 
when he was staying at his chateaux of Marly and 
Fontainebleau in the summer: secondly, shooting in 
his park, and there was no man in France who could 
shoot so accurately, so skilfully, and with such grace. 
This also he did once or twice during the week, espe- 
cially on the Sundays and fete-days on which he did 
not wish to have a great hunting expedition. Thirdly, 
on the other days he went to watch the workmen at 
their work, and to walk in his gardens and buildings. 
Sometimes he made expeditions with ladies, and gave 
them refreshments in some grove of Versailles, or in 
the forest of Marly or of Fontainebleau. He liked 
also to go with his whole Court round the Grand 
Canal, and this was a splendid sight, when some of 
the courtiers were on horseback. On his other ex- 
peditions he was only followed by those whose offices 
were important and brought them near to his person. 
Sometimes there was a large number of courtiers 
when he walked in the gardens of Versailles — ^when 

[296] 



LOUIS XIV. 

only he wore a hat — or in those of Trianon, but this 
was only when he slept at Trianon and stayed there 
for several days. This was also the case at Marly; 
but if he were staying there all who were taking part 
in the expedition were quite at liberty to follow him 
about the gardens, to join him there, to leave him 
there; in short, to enjoy their visit in any way they 
liked. 

There was one privilege which was the custom at 
this place, Marly, and at no other. On leaving the 
chateau the King said aloud: "Your hats, gentle- 
men! " and instantly the courtiers, the officers of the 
bodyguard, and the officials of the building depart- 
ment, placed their hats on their heads, whether they 
were in front of the King or behind him, or beside 
him, and he would have taken it ill if any one had 
even, not omitted, but delayed to put on his hat. This 
state of things lasted throughout the expedition, that 
is to say, for four or five hours sometimes in summer. 
He often had something to eat early at Versailles in 
order to go to Marly merely for the day. With its 
delicious gardens Marly was thus a kind of annexe 
to the principal royal dwelling. 

Stag-hunting was one of the chief amusements of 
the Court. At Fontainebleau any one might take 
part in it who wished; but elsewhere, and especially 
in the " great park " of Versailles, only those courtiers 

[297] 



VERSAILLES 

might join in it who had obtained permission once 
for all, and those who possessed the uniform jacket, 
which was blue trimmed with gold and silver lace, 
one stripe of silver between two of gold, and was 
lined with red. There was a fairly large number of 
them, but they never hunted in more than one party 
at a time, who came together by chance. The King 
liked to have a certain number of companions, but 
too many worried him, and spoilt the hunt. He liked 
people to enjoy the chase, but he did not wish them to 
hunt without enjoying it; he thought that was ridi- 
culous, and he bore no grudge against those who 
never hunted. 

It was the same with regard to gambling. He 
liked the play in the salon of Marly to be high, and 
continual. They played lansquenet chiefly, but there 
were a great many tables arranged for other games in 
different parts of the salon. At Fontainebleau, when 
the weather was bad, it gave him great pleasure to 
watch good performers at tennis, in which he had 
formerly excelled, and at Marly he liked to watch 
the game of mall, in which he had also been very 
skilful. There was a Mall, too, in the gardens of 
Versailles. 

Sometimes, on days when there was no Council 
held, and he was at Versailles, he would go to dine at 
Marly or Trianon with Madame Le Duchesse de 

[298] 



LOUIS XIV. 

Bourgogne, Madame de Maintenon, and other ladies, 
and this occurred much more frequently during the 
last years of life. In the summer the minister who 
was to work with him arrived as he rose from the 
table, and after the work was finished he spent his 
time until the evening in walking or driving with 
ladies, or playing games with them, or fairly often 
in getting up a lottery for them, in which every one 
drew a winning number. Thus it was really a grace- 
ful way of giving them presents, apportioned by 
chance, of things for their personal use, such as pieces 
of stuff or silk, or jewels varying in beauty in order 
to leave more to chance. Madame de Maintenon 
drew lots like the others, and nearly always gave her 
winnings away instantly; but the King did not draw. 
It was not only on these occasions that there were 
lotteries, but often also when the King was dining 
with Madame de Maintenon. The idea of these 
dinners was slow in coming to him, and for a long 
time they occurred very rarely, but later on they took 
place once a week, with ladies with whom he was inti- 
mate, and were accompanied by music and card- 
playing. At the lotteries there were only the ladies 
of the Palace, and those with whom he was on 
familiar terms. 

In the summer the King worked in his own rooms 
with his ministers, on leaving the table; and when 

[301] 



VERSAILLES 

the days began to shorten he worked in the evening 
in Madame de Maintenon's rooms. 

When he was returning from his drive any one 
might speak to him who wished, as he walked from 
his carriage to the foot of his private staircase. He 
changed his clothes as before, and then remained in 
his Cabinet, where his friends and the Valets of the 
Inner Rooms were able to approach him quite at 
their ease. For these intervals, which occurred three 
times in the day, were given up to them, and to those 
who brought him reports, either verbal or in writing. 
It was also the time when the King wrote, if he had 
any writing to do for himself. On returning from 
his drives he remained in his rooms for an hour or 
more: then he went to the rooms of Madame de 
Maintenon, and on his way thither any one might ad- 
dress him who would. 

This daily visit to Madame de Maintenon filled a 
large place in the thoughts of the Court. Her 
rooms were on the same floor as those of the King. 
The great bedroom of the Marquise was lighted by 
three windows, and was very large. The King's 
arm-chair was on one side of the fireplace, and be- 
fore him was a campstool for the minister who came 
every day to work with him. On the other side of 
the fireplace was a recess hung with red damask, and 
an arm-chair in which sat Madame de Maintenon 

[302] 



LOUIS XIV. 

with a little table before her. She never interfered 
with the work of the King and his ministers : her in- 
fluence, which was nearly always good, was perfectly 
discreet. Very often the young Duchesse de Bour- 
gogne, with one or two of her favourite ladies, came 
to visit "her aunt," and the princess's bright and ani- 
mated conversation cheered the old King. More 
than once the conversation concerned the plays that 
the Duchesse acted before the King in a neighbouring 
room, where also the young ladies of Saint-Cyr 
played Racine's tragedy of Esther. These plays were 
of great interest to the King, to Monseigneur, and to 
those privileged persons who were admitted on rare 
occasions. (They took place in the room where the 
portrait of Madam de Maintenon with her young 
niece now hangs, in the background of which picture 
the artist has placed the House of Education for poor 
girls of noble birth, founded at Saint-Cyr near Ver- 
sailles by Madame de Maintenon.) 

Before the King's supper-hour, Madame de Main- 
tenon's servants brought in her soup and laid her 
table. She ate her supper in the presence of the 
King, who went on with his work. The meal was 
very short; the table was removed; and the Mar- 
quise's women undressed her quickly and put her to 
bed. As soon as the King was told that his supper 
was ready, he rose, approached Madame de Main- 

[303] 



VERSAILLES 

tenon's bed, said good-night to her, and returned to 
his own rooms for supper. 

It was at ten o'clock that the King's supper was 
served. The maitre d'hdtel, wand in hand, went to 
announce the fact to the Captain of the Guard in 
Madame de Maintenon's ante-room, where that 
officer had just taken up his position. None but the 
captains of the guard were admitted to this ante- 
chamber, which was very small, and was between 
the room in which the King and Madame de Main- 
tenon sat, and another very small ante-room assigned 
to the officers. The greater number of the courtiers 
waited at the door of the suite, on the landing of the 
marble staircase. The Captain of the Guard stood 
on the threshold of the room, and told the King that 
his supper was ready, returning immediately to the 
ante-room. A quarter of an hour afterwards the 
King went to supper, which was always in public, 
and as he went from Madame de Maintenon's ante- 
room to his own table any one might speak to him 
who wished to do so. 

This meal was always in public, with the royal 
house, that is to say only the sons and daughters of 
the Crown, and the grandsons and granddaughters of 
the Crown. A great number of courtiers were pres- 
ent, and of ladies, of whom as many were sitting as 
standing, and two evenings before the expeditions to 

[304] 



LOUIS XIV. 

Marly all those who wished to take part in it were 
present also. This was called " applying for Marly." 
The men applied in the morning of the same day, by 
simply saying to the King: " Sire, Marly." Dur- 
ing his last years this wearied the King; and the page 
on duty wrote down in the gallery the names of those 
who applied there. The ladies, however, continued 
to apply in person to the King for the much coveted 
favour of a visit to Marly. 

After supper the King stood for a few moments 
with his back to the railing at the foot of his bed, sur- 
rounded by his whole Court; then, bowing to the 
ladies, he passed out into his private sitting-rooms, 
where he gave his orders. Here he spent a little 
less than an hour with his children and grandchil- 
dren, both legitimate and otherwise, and their hus- 
bands and wives, who all assembled in one of the 
Inner Rooms. The King sat in one arm-chair and 
Monsieur in another, for in private they lived on 
brotherly terms. The Dauphin (Monseigneur) , and 
all the other princes, remained standing, and the 
princesses sat on stools. Madame le Duchesse 
d'Orleans was admitted after the death of Madame 
la Dauphine. This family gathering was augmented 
by those who were sufficiently familiar to come in 
through the rooms at the back, and by the inevitable 
Valets of the Inner Room. 

[305] 



VERSAILLES 

The princesses' ladies of honour, and the ladies of 
the palace on duty for the day, waited meanwhile in 
the Council Room, which at Versailles was next to 
the room in which the King sat. At Fontainebleau, 
where there was but one large sitting-room, the ladies 
of the princesses who were seated completed the cir- 
cle, in the same row as the princesses and on similar 
stools, while the other ladies remained at the back, 
and were at liberty to stand or to sit on the floor with- 
out ceremony, which a good many of them did. The 
conversation was only on the subject of hunting, or 
some other indifferent topic. 

The King, when he wished to retire, fed his dogs; 
then said good-nighc and went into his room, where 
he said his prayers by the bedside as in the morning, 
and then undressed. He said good-night by inclin- 
ing his head, and while every one was leaving the 
room he remained standing at the corner of the 
chimney-piece, where he gave his orders to tlie 
colonel of the guard alone. Then began the petit 
coucher, at which those who had the grande entree 
and the seconde entree were present. This ceremony 
was very short. The courtiers did not leave the room 
till the King was in bed, and this was one of the 
moments when privileged people might address him. 
When it was seen that some one wished to speak to 
the King, every one else went out of the room and 

[306] 



"""T^!^^^^'^' ■ '^'i- ,! ■f-'*^-- 



^ ■ ■ ■''■#;*;*•<■ 



i^f'X 



<i^ 







( -V 






LOUIS XIV. 

left them together. Thus the day ended; a day full 
of activities, in which everything had a place; reli- 
gious duty, the care of affairs of State, the patronage 
of the arts, the private interests of the Court, and 
family affection. 

We can now see why Louis XIV. created Ver- 
sailles, with its new town, and the multitude of dwell- 
ings in the Palace and its dependencies, in which the 
King was able to lodge as many as ten thousand peo- 
ple! In order to hold his magnificent Court it was 
necessary for him to have the whole nobility within 
reach. Moreover, his action was the result of pro- 
foundly politic calculation, for he had never for- 
gotten the dangers run by his throne and even by his 
person during his minority, at the time of the civil 
war of the Fronde, when the nobility of France had 
rebelled against the authority of the Crown. Ver- 
sailles was created with the object of domesticating 
these over-powerful and turbulent nobles, of separat- 
ing them from their lands and subjecting them to the 
King, of binding them to him by golden chains, by a 
multiplication of honourable ofBces, and by giving 
them a taste for the pleasures of a magnificent Court. 
This method succeeded admirably, and the sons of 
the rebels were all brilliant courtiers and generals 
faithful to the King and very proud of the rank and 
honours accorded to them in the ceremonies of Ver- 

[309] 



VERSAILLES 

sailles. Louis XIV.'s pride was satified, and he took 
good care that no one should evade the new duties 
that he had laid upon the whole nobility of the 
kingdom. 

He liked to be seen, explains the Due de Saint- 
Simon in the passage that describes Louis XIV.'s 
character, and he was anxious to be admired and 
loved. He not only desired the constant presence of 
people of noble birth, but he wished for that of every 
one else also. He looked to right and left at his 
lever, at his coucher, at his meals, as he passed from 
one room to another, and as he walked in the gardens 
of Versailles, where alone the courtiers were at 
liberty to follow him. He went deeply into their 
reasons for absenting themselves, whether the cause 
were general or particular, and those who were 
hardly ever present were disgraced. When he was 
requested for something in the name of such a man 
he would answer proudly: "I do not know him." 
Or again: "He is a man I never see." These 
decisions were irrevocable. He could not endure 
people who enjoyed being in Paris. He was com- 
paratively lenient with those who loved their places 
in the country, but nevertheless it behoved them to 
return very quickly, and if they were to be absent for 
any length of time to show themselves conspicuously 
before they went. 

[310] 



LOUIS XIV. 

No one ever granted favours with a better grace, 
or increased the value of his benefits more generously 
in this way. No one ever understood so well how to 
make his words, his smiles, even his glances, valued. 
He made everything precious by his discrimination 
and dignity; the brevity and rarity of his speech 
added greatly to its worth. The person he addressed 
was looked at by every one in the room. The dis- 
tinction became the subject of conversation, and the 
object of it was treated with a certain amount of con- 
sideration. It was the same with every attention, dis- 
tinction, or preference shown by the King, who was 
not at all lavish of such favours. He never allowed 
himself to say a disagreeable word; if he had to find 
fault, or reprimand or correct any one, which was 
extremely rare, he always did so with a certain degree 
of kindness, hardly ever sternly and never angrily. 

He was a man of the greatest natural courtesy, of 
a courtesy of every shade and degree; for none paid 
more attention than he to distinctions of age, merit, 
and rank. He marked these different distinctions 
very carefully in his way of greeting people and 
acknowledged their bows as they entered or left the 
room. His different ways of acknowledging salutes 
at the head of his troops, whether at the front or at 
reviews, were really admirable. With woman his 
bearing was incomparable. He never passed any 

[311] 



VERSAILLES 

kind of coif, even if it were worn by a servant-girl, 
without raising his hat. When meeting ladies he un- 
covered altogether, but at varying distances; for 
titled people he raised his hat and held it in the air 
or close to his ear for a few moments in a more or 
less marked way. For seigneurs he considered it 
enough to put his hand to his hat. For Princes of 
the Blood he removed it in the same way as for ladies. 
If he spoke to ladies he never placed his hat on his 
head till he had left them. All this relates to when 
he was out of doors, for in the house he was always 
uncovered. His bows, more or less marked but al- 
ways slight, were incomparably graceful, as was his 
way of half rising from his seat at the supper-table 
whenever a duchess entered. He did this for no 
other lady, nor yet for the Princes of Blood, and when 
he grew old this custom tired him, though he never 
gave it up. The ladies, therefore, were careful not 
to enter the room after he had begun his supper. In 
the same way he showed a distinction in his accept- 
ance of services from Monsieur, the Due d'Orleans, 
and the Princes of the Blood. 

If he were kept waiting for anything while he was 
dressing he always waited patiently; he was always 
punctual to the hours he gave for the arrangements 
of the day; his orders were always given with preci- 
sion, clearness, and brevity. If, in the bad winter 

[312] 



LOUIS XIV. 

weather when he could not go out, he went to 
Madame de Maintenon's rooms a quarter of an hour 
earlier than the time he had appointed, and the cap- 
tain of the guard were not at his post, he never 
omitted to say on his return that it was his own fault 
for having altered the hour, and not the fault of the 
captain for being absent. This method had the effect 
of securing for him the most punctual service, and it 
was of the greatest convenience to the courtiers. 

He treated his valets very well, especially those of 
the Inner Rooms. It was among them that he felt 
most at his ease and became most expansive. The 
friendship or aversion of these individuals often had 
great results. They were always in a position to help 
or injure others with the King, and they recall the 
powerful freedmen of the Roman Emperors, whom 
the Senate and great men of the Empire courted and 
basely flattered. Throughout this reign the valets 
were no less considered and no less courted. Even 
the most powerful ministers were openly careful to 
keep on good terms with them, and the Princes of the 
Blood treated them in the same way. The office of 
First Gentleman of the Bedchamber was more than 
eclipsed by that of First Valet of the Bedchamber, 
and it was only thanks to the goodwill of the inferior 
officials that the more important ones kept their posts. 
The insolence of the former was proportionate to 

[3^31 



VERSAILLES 

their power, and could only be endured by avoiding 
coming in contact with it. 

Louis XIV.'s gallantry was proverbial, and he gave 
it the rein in his marvellous Court fetes, of which the 
ladies were the principal ornament. It was with the 
Queen his mother and the Comtesse de Siossons that 
he had acquired his wonderful polish of manner, 
which was increased by the companionship of his 
mistresses. His air of dignity was tempered with 
gaiety; but his smallest gesture, his bearing, his gait, 
his countenance, all were noble and grand and at the 
same time quite natural — the effect of habit assisted 
by a regal presence and a fine figure. On serious oc- 
casions, too, such as interviews with ambassadors and 
ceremonial functions, there never was a more impos- 
ing monarch; and those who were to address him 
were wise if they accustomed themselves to his ap- 
pearance beforehand, lest they should be struck dumb 
in the middle of speaking. His answers on such oc- 
casions were always short, just, and accurate, and it 
was very seldom that they did not include something 
courteous, or even flattering if the speech deserved it. 
And the respect induced by his presence wherever he 
was imposed absolute silence, and indeed a kind of 
awe. 

He liked to take as much exercise in the open air 
as his strength would allow. He had once excelled 

[314] 



LOUIS XIV. 

in the dance, and in the games of mall and tennis. As 
an old man he was still an admirable horseman. He 
liked to see all these games and sports practised with 
grace and skill. For a man to acquit himself well or 
badly in his presence was meritorious or the contrary. 
He said that in unnecessary things of that kind it was 
better to leave them alone altogether than not to do 
them well. He was very fond of shooting, and there 
was no better shot than he; he insisted on having 
first-rate setters, and always kept seven or eight in 
his own rooms, where he liked to feed them himself 
in order that they might learn to know him. He 
also enjoyed stag-hunting, but he followed the hunt 
in a carriage after he broke his arm while hunting at 
Fontainebleau. He drove alone in a little, light, 
two-wheeled carriage called a soufflet, drawn by four 
little horses, which were changed five or six times, 
and he drove these at breakneck speed with a skill the 
best coachman did not possess, and with the same 
grace that he showed in everything. His postillions 
were children, varying in age from nine to fifteen 
years, and he guided them himself. 

He liked profusion, splendour, magnificence in 
everything. He made a principle of this taste for 
reasons of policy, and inspired the whole Court with 
it. Those pleased him best who conformed to it in 
the table they kept, in their clothes, their carriages, 

[315] 



VERSAILLES 

their buildings, and their card-playing. These 
habits gave him opportunities for conversing with 
people : but perhaps his real motive was that by these 
means he succeeded in draining the fortunes of his 
courtiers, and that by making luxury honourable he 
made it impossible for any one to live except by his 
kindness. He also found a satisfaction to his pride 
in holding so splendid a Court, and in the great med- 
ley of people, which gradually destroyed natural dis- 
tinctions and thereby enhanced the greatness of the 
King's unique position. 

After the year 1709 Louis XIV. experienced the 
most terrible troubles, which in one way only in- 
creased his renown, and placed it on a more solid 
foundation than all the glitter of his conquests and 
the long tale of his prosperous years had ever done. 
His greatness of soul remained unshaken during these 
long reverses; his sorrows at home and his misfor- 
tunes abroad in no wise broke down his courage. 
Seeing him left without resources his enemies abroad 
laughed at his powerless position, and sneered at his 
past glory; but he, in the midst of his domestic 
troubles, preserved his constancy, his firmness of char- 
acter, his equable temper, his unchanging determina- 
tion to remain at the helm of affairs, his hope against 
hope, and this through courage and wisdom, not 
through blindness. The preservation of this un- 

[316] 



.H IPP 




w 
a; 

M 

H 

< 

w 
DC 

O 



LOUIS XIV. 

changing front is what few men would have been 
capable of; and it is by virtue of this that he deserves 
the name of Louis the Great, which was given to him 
so prematurely! It was this, too, that gained him 
the admiration of all Europe, as well as that of the 
subjects who had witnessed his strength and firmness, 
and that won back to him so many hearts that had been 
alienated in the course of his long and arduous reign. 
And Saint-Simon says that he could humiliate himself 
in secret under the hand of God, recognising His jus- 
tice, and imploring His mercy, without lowering 
himself or his crown in the eyes of men. 

This honourable ending of his life, which re- 
deemed the excesses due to his pride and the faults 
due to his passions, must be attributed to the sincerity 
of his Christian sentiments and to the influence of 
Madame de Maintenon, of whom many evil things 
have been wrongfully said because she had many 
enemies. Impartial historians of to-day recognise 
unanimously that Madame de Maintenon had many 
sterling qualities, rendered the King great services, 
often counselled him wisely, and was indeed, as his 
unacknowledged wife, the good genius of his old age. 

The Queen had died in the year 1683. The first of 
the King's bereavements towards the end of his reign 
was the death, in 1701, of his brother Monsieur, for 
whom he had much affection, in spite of sundry dif- 

[319] 



VERSAILLES 

ficulties that arose between them from time to time. 
Their most serious quarrel concerned the marriage 
of Mademoiselle de Blois, Louis XIV.'s natural 
daughter, with Monsieur's son the Due de Chartres. 
No one but the King desired this marriage; all the 
other interested persons cared very little about it, and 
the Princess Palatine, Monsieur's wife, even re- 
garded it with apprehension as an indignity to her 
son, and was so much annoyed with him for agreeing 
to it that she actually boxed his ears in public. The 
wishes of the monarch, however, were carried out; 
but the Due de Chartres was not exactly gallant to his 
young wife, who openly complained. The matter 
formed a constant subject of discussion between the 
King and Monsieur his brother. One morning the 
scene had been more than usually violent, and when 
they came and sat down to the table Monsieur's face 
was red and inflamed, and his eyes sparkling with 
anger. Seeing the colour of his face, one of the 
ladies at the table, and some of the courtiers remarked 
that Monsieur was in great need of being bled. The 
King, too, in spite of the quarrel, advised him to be 
bled every day. Tancrede, his chief surgeon, was 
unskilful and unsuccessful in bleeding, but rather 
than hurt his feelings Monsieur refused to be bled 
by any one else, and thus chose to die in consequence. 
On the evening of the day on which the dispute with 

[320] 



LOUIS XIV. 

the King had taken place Monsieur, who had re- 
turned to his charming palace of Saint-Cloud, began 
to feel the symptoms of the congestion of which, a 
few hours later, he was to die. Louis XIV. hastened 
to his side. The King wept easily, and had therefore 
melted into tears; he had never had reason to feel 
anything but the tenderest affection for Monsieur, 
and although he had not been on good terms with 
him during the last two months, the sadness of the 
moment revived all his afifection. Perhaps, too, he 
reproached himself with having hastened his 
brother's death by the scene of the morning, and, 
moreover, Monsieur was younger than himself by 
two years, and had been as strong as he all his life. 
. . . Three hours after his arrival the King, see- 
ing the chief surgeon M. Fagon, whom he had 
ordered to remain with Monsieur till he was dead or 
better, said to him: "Ah, then, M. Fagon, my 
brother is dead!" "Yes, Sire," was the answer, 
" no remedy was of any avail." The King wept 
bitterly. 

In later years the bereavements of the royal family 
were frequent. First came the death of the Grand 
Dauphin in 171 1. This prince was a very ordinary 
individual, who played a very obscure part. We 
may see his fat and unintelligent face in an interesting 
picture in the Wallace Collection at Hertford House, 

[321 ] 



VERSAILLES 

beside the majestic figure of the King his father, and 
his son the Due de Bourgogne. A fourth generation 
of the Bourbons is represented in the same picture, 
in the person of a little prince held in leading-strings 
by Madame le Duchesse de Ventadour, the governess 
of the children of France. This prince is the Due 
de Bretagne, who was born in 1707 and died in 1712, 
and was replaced in the succession to the throne by 
his younger brother, born in 1710, who became King 
under the name of Louis XV. — the only male scion 
of this fertile line who was surviving at the time of 
Louis XIV.'s death in 1715. 

Monseigneur, Louis XV.'s grandfather, had de- 
rived no profit from the excellent education he had 
received from the Due de Montausier, and from Bos- 
suet, the famous Bishop of Meaux: his very mediocre 
mind could not take advantage of it: by his own con- 
fession, after he was emancipated from his masters 
he never read anything but the Gazette de France, 
and moreover only the article relating to deaths and 
marriages. 

Everything in him contributed then — natural 
timidity, ignorance, and the heavy yoke of education 
— to make him tremble before the King, who for his 
part omitted nothing that could encourage this terror 
to last as long as he lived. In spite of Monseigneur's 
complete initiation for many years into all affairs of 

[322] 



LOUIS XIV. 

State, he never exercised the smallest influence in 
them. 

It was at Meudon that he died while he was still 
quite young. His death-agony lasted for more than 
an hour, during which time he was unconscious. 
The King was in the room next to that of the dying 
man; and Madame le Duchesse and Madame la 
Princesse de Conti divided their attentions between 
the two, for the King seemed greatly distressed, and 
they frequently returned to him; while the distracted 
physicians, the bewildered valets, and the whisper- 
ing courtiers hustled each other, and ran ceaselessly 
up and down in the same spot. Finally the fatal 
moment arrived, and Fagon the physician came out 
to impart the news. The King, who was much 
moved and greatly pained because his son had not 
been able to make his confession, was a little harsh 
to the chief physician, and was then led away by 
Madame de Maintenon and the two princesses. 

On hearing the news of Monseigneur's death, his 
two sons, the Due de Bourgogne and the Due de 
Berry, could not restrain their grief. The Due de 
Bourgogne wept bitterly, but gently; his tears were 
those of tenderness and resignation. The Due de 
Berry, however, not only sobbed aloud, but gave vent 
to cries and screams. They ceased occasionally from 
suffocation, and then broke out again so noisily that 

[323] 



VERSAILLES 

the greater number of those who were present burst 
out also into fresh expressions of grief. 

After the death of his son the King experienced 
another equally distressing bereavement. The 
charming Duchesse de Bourgogne, whom he loved 
as much as his own daughters, expired at Versailles 
on February 12, 1712. The King's sorrow was terri- 
ble, and he shared his grief with his grandson, the 
bereaved husband, who himself died at Marly six 
days later; a circumstance which created a suspicion 
of poison in the minds of the Court. The rumour 
was much discussed, but apparently had no founda- 
tion of fact. The Due de Bourgogne was quite 
young when he died, and was full of excellent quali- 
ties; he was tlie dearest hope of France. After 
a stormy childhood, during which his teachers had 
many a battle with his pride, his vanity, his caprices, 
and his tempers, the pupil of Fenelon, Archbishop of 
Cambrai, gradually developed into the most perfect 
of young men. He had already won distinction in 
the army, with the Marshal de Villars. He loved 
his grandfather the King, and his brothers, but above 
all he loved his young wife. The tenderest fibres of 
his being were torn by the pain of her loss. " His 
piety," writes Saint-Simon, " sustained him by the 
most prodigious efforts. The sacrifice was complete, 
but it was bloody. In this terrible sorrow there was 

[324] 



LOUIS XIV. 

nothing base, nothing small. One saw a man beside 
himself, trying to preserve his balance, but failing in 
the struggle. It soon ended his days. But, great 
God! — what an imitation of Jesus Christ upon the 
Cross! What marvellous detachment! What eager 
transports of thanksgiving for being saved from the 
throne and from its responsibilities! What a splen- 
did idea of the infinite mercy! What a pious and 
humble sense of fear! . . . He died! The earth 
was not worthy of such a prince; he was already ripe 
for an eternity of bliss!" This passage on the vir- 
tues of the Due de Bourgogne is famous in the litera- 
ture of France of that period; and it shows us that 
the Due de Saint-Simon, whose testimony was so 
malicious and unjust in the case of such of his con- 
temporaries as he accounted his enemies, could be en- 
thusiastic and full of admiration for those he liked. 
He seems, indeed, to have regretted that Louis 
XIV.'s excellent grandson did not come to the throne, 
and that the crown of France should have devolved, 
after the Due d'Orleans' short regency, upon that 
youthful prince of feeble character and incomplete 
moral training who became Louis XV. 



[325] 



THE GRAND TRIANON 

XN leaving the park of Versailles at a point 
beyond the Basin of Neptune we come, by 
way of a wide path overshadowed by trees, 
to a gate, where the presence of a guard- 
house indicates that we are at the entrance to another 
demesne. If we advance a few steps we see a build- 
ing of somewhat unusual contsruction — a large one- 
storeyed erection with two wings projecting in front, 
the whole surmounted by an Italian roof. The court 
is enclosed by a trench. This is the Grand Trianon. 
The Grand Trianon, which was so called after the 
Petit Trianon came into existence, originated in the 
caprice of a royal mistress. It was to please Madame 
de Montespan that Louis XIV. selected this unknown 
corner for the site of one of those erections that were 
both his glory and his folly. There stood here at 
that time a wretched village, in the middle of the 
lands belonging to the Abbey of St. Genevieve of 
Paris. The name of this village was Trianon. The 

[326] 



THE GRAND TRIANON 

land was joined to the demesne of Versailles, the 
houses were taken down, and gardens were made. 
The little chateau was built in a few months, during 
the year 1670. " This palace," says a contemporary 
writer, " was regarded at first by every one as a work 
of magic, for it was begun only at the end of the win- 
ter and was finished in the spring, as though it had 
sprung from the earth with the flowers of the gardens 
that came into being with it." 

This was the first surprise of the kind that the 
King's architects perpetrated — one of those feats of 
skill with which they liked to please the monarch, 
and which they often accomplished, knowing that 
their master did not care to wait long for the realisa- 
tion of his desires. The reign was at this time pass- 
ing through its most prosperous period; France was 
every day rising in the estimation of Europe; the 
successes of Louis XIV.'s diplomatists and the vic- 
tories of his generals were countless. Two years be- 
fore, at the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, Flanders had 
become French territory, and the war with Holland, 
which was being planned in the royal councils at the 
chateau of Saint-Germain, was about to. add Alsace 
and Franche Comte to the possessions of the Mon- 
archy. Louis the Great was about thirty-two years 
of age : he had not yet definitely established himself 
at Versailles, but he came thither very often, for he 

[329] 



VERSAILLES 

took great pleasure in this spot to which his father had 
been so much attached: he had already altered and 
enlarged Louis XIIL's little chateau, and fresh trans- 
formations were soon to begin. 

From that moment the King began to dream of 
transporting the Court to Versailles, and the neigh- 
bouring chateau of Trianon benefited from his resolu- 
tion. It had a large share in the royal favour; in the 
year 1670 alone 1,800,000 livres were spent on it; and 
of this sum 155,000 livres were simply for the actual 
masonry, the rest being spent in buying marble and 
looking-glasses, and in decoration. All the famous 
artists were engaged in the work; artists who were 
soon to be employed in the Palace of Versailles, such 
as the sculptors Le Hongre, Massou, Le Gros, Hou- 
zeau, and Mazeline, with Jouvenet, who adorned the 
upper part of the house with ornaments in gilded lead 
representing cupids chasing animals. 

Every one who saw this charming house wished 
to have a Trianon of his own, and the name almost 
became a common noun. ^' Nearly all the noblemen 
who had country houses," said the Mercure Galant in 
1672, "had built Trianons in their parks or in the 
secluded corners at the end of their gardens; some 
of the bourgeois had arranged houses en Trianon, 
or at all events a room in their houses, or some kind 
of turret." A great number of prints are still in 

[330] 



THE GRAND TRIANON 

existence representing Trianon at this period, viewed 
either from the side of the Avenue de Versailles or 
from the gardens. The object of the work of all 
these engravers was to satisfy the curiosity of the 
public of their own day, but as it happens they have 
also been of service to ours, for the first Trianon no 
longer exists. 

The decorative scheme of this first palace, to 
which were attached four little pavilions for the 
servants, all exactly alike, consisted of plaques and 
other ornaments in faience, in allusion to which 
the place was nicknamed the Porcelain Trianon. It 
was the same inside, " where everything was adorned 
in the manner of the works of art that come from 
China." The explanation of this curious scheme 
of decoration, which seems so much opposed to 
everything else that has descended to us from Louis 
XIV.'s day, lies in the fact that the taste for Chi- 
nese art was just coming into fashion. The mission- 
aries had published their first descriptions of the 
Far East; lacquer, grotesque figures, porcelain, and 
painted stuffs were beginning to appear in Europe; 
collectors were quarrelling over tlie most bizarre 
objects; and the famous Porcelain Tower was ex- 
citing the astonishment of every French architect. 
The architect of Trianon employed, to simulate por- 
celain, the materials he had at hand, faience and 

[331 ] 



VERSAILLES 

plaster. It is of real interest, in the middle of the 
century characterised by dignity and pomp, to see 
these symptoms of an amusing fashion that was soon 
to take so firm a hold on the imagination, not of 
France alone, but of all Europe. 

The greatest beauty of Trianon was the garden. 
The large green-house with its framework of wood, 
where the fruit-trees of the south were growing in 
the soil, was a novelty in these latitudes and created 
much astonishment. The King employed a quan- 
tity of gardeners in it, who supplied him with an 
abundance of flowers. 

The summer flower-beds were quickly renewed by 
a method of some ingenuity. "There was a pro- 
digious quantity of flowers," says the Due de Luynes, 
" all growing in pots of sand and planted in the bor- 
ders, so that they could be changed, not merely every 
day if it were desired, but even twice a day! I was 
assured that there had been as many as 1,900,000 pots 
at once, either in the borders or in the storehouse." 
This constant variety, these changes taking place 
under the very eyes, which gave a sense of magic 
intervention, were particularly pleasing to the King. 
One detail will suffice to show the characteristics of 
the garden of Trianon under Louis XIV. It was 
filled, apparently, with all the most strongly scented 
flowers, such as jasmine, heliotrope, tuberoses. A 

[332] 



THE GRAND TRIANON 

little room in the palace was entirely filled with 
them, and was called the Perfumed Chamber. 
When the Siamese ambassadors visited it in 1686 
these Oriental, we are told, " admired the way it 
was perfumed with flowers." 

In 1674 the garden was planted and the palace 
finished. The first fetes were held there on the 
occasion of the return from Franche Comte, for 
Louis XIV. chose Versailles and Trianon for the 
celebration of his victories. The fetes lasted for six 
days. On July 4 Quinault's Alceste was played in 
the marble court at Versailles. On the second day, 
July II, the King spent the evening at Trianon, 
where a large eight-sided room had been built of 
leafy branches, with a dome adorned with garlands, 
through which the sky could be seen. On one side 
of the entrance an opening had been made, behind 
which appeared a basin and a jet of water; and all 
round it there were statues of satyrs and nymphs, 
arranged in niches, and playing on various musical 
instruments. This was the imaginary orchestra to 
which the spectators were supposed to be listening. 
The real musicians were on a platform that sur- 
rounded the room; and the Court encircled the 
King, whose seat faced the doorway with the 
fountain. Here LuUi's music was performed, with 
some songs forming an interlude by Quinault called 



VERSAILLES 

Uj£glogue de Versailles. Having been apparently 
much pleased with the music, the King left Trianon 
and roamed about until nine o'clock in the evening 
in the park of Versailles, where supper was served 
in the open air, among the trees. 

At that time, says Saint-Simon, Trianon was noth- 
ing but " a porcelain house where one could go to 
eat and drink." The King entertained ladies there. 
The Queen went there sometimes without him, with 
her own ladies. Madame de Sevigne writes on June 
12, 1675: "The Queen went yesterday to a repast 
at Trianon; she got out at the church, and again at 
Clagny, where she took Madame de Montespan into 
her carriage and drove her to Trianon with her." 
Dangeau mentions all the supper-parties. For in- 
stance: "There was a fete at Trianon, where four 
tables were laid: the walking and dancing went on 
for a long time." And another day: "The King 
entertained Madame la Dauphine and the ladies at 
supper at Trianon. After supper he walked on the 
terraces." 

The King enjoyed being at Trianon very much. 
Everything in the place was his own work, and no 
one's imagination had been beforehand with him 
there. The Grand Canal had been completed, and 
its right arm extended to the gardens and to the 
rising ground where the " house of porcelain " stood. 

[334] 



THE GRAND TRIANON 

This made it possible to make expeditions on the 
water, and increased the charm of the spot. But the 
King would have liked to be able to sleep there, and 
spend several days in the place. There was no room 
for this, and none of the arrangements were suitable. 
He decided, therefore, to do away with the pavilions, 
and instructed Mansart to build him, on the same 
site, a really habitable place. 

To this ostensible reason for the King's resolu- 
tion we may add another less open one, of a more 
intimate nature. The porcelain Trianon had been 
built for Madame de Montespan, and all Versailles 
knew it. The King could not help thinking of this 
fact, and being reminded of his mistress in every 
corner of the little house, in the ornaments that re- 
flected her taste, and in the dainty luxury that had 
fulfilled her wishes. Now, in 1687, Madame de 
Montespan was no longer at Court, and was, more- 
over, very far from the heart of the King. Queen 
Marie-Therese was dead, and Louis XIV. was en- 
tering upon a new life. The monarch's passions 
were growing weaker and, influenced by his mor- 
ganatic wife, Madame de Maintenon, he was turn- 
ing to the practices of religion. Was it to please 
the Marquise, in her jealousy of the past, that he 
destroyed the first Trianon? It is very possible ; and 
moreover he himself was assuredly anxious to de- 

[335] 



VERSAILLES 

stroy a monument raised in honour of his former 
follies. 

In the building of the new chateau, in which 
Trianon was to take its final form, Frangois Man- 
sart was employed, with his usual collaborator 
Robert de Cotte. To Robert de Cotte is attrib- 
uted the glazed peristyle in the Italian style which 
unites the two wings of the present palace. The 
sculptors of Versailles were despatched to Trianon, 
where they worked for two years. The decora- 
tions executed by these ingenious artists have now 
almost entirely disappeared. After the Revolution 
the most beautiful portions of them were allowed to 
perish, more particularly the statues, the groups, and 
the vases that surmounted the balustrade of the cor- 
nice with such a harmonious effect. The balustrade 
has now rather a bare appearance. 

The two principal suites of rooms were those of 
the King and the Dauphin, which were separated 
by the great peristyle. There was a chapel and a 
little theatre. A long gallery, projecting towards 
the gardens, served as a hall for entertainments ; an- 
other body of buildings joined it at right angles and 
contained rooms for such members of the Court as 
were invited as guests: this was the part known as 
Trianon-sous-Bois, on account of the trees by which 
it has always been surrounded. This addition is 

[336] 




2 



rrZ 



w 

oi 

w 

< 

a- 

a: 

H 
D 
O 



«l 



THE GRAND TRIANON 

of later date than the original plan, but is also due 
to Louis XIV. 

The King went from time to time to inspect the 
progress of the work. In November, 1687, at the 
end of the annual visit of the Court to Fontainebleau, 
he started in the morning, dined on the way, and 
arrived at Versailles at three o'clock in the afternoon. 
His first care was to assure himself that the work at 
Trianon had been progressing well during his ab- 
sence. Taking with him Madame de Maintenon 
and Madame de Montchevreuil he went to visit his 
building operations, in which he saw a great ad- 
vance. The architects and workmen were much en- 
couraged by his presence. During the two months 
that followed his return he visited the place several 
times a week, and when he went to dine at Marly he 
always returned by way of Trianon. At last in Jan- 
uary, 1688, he dined in the new palace in the com- 
pany of the "Grand Dauphin," Madame de Main- 
tenon, and some of her friends, namely Mesdames 
de Noailles, de Montchevreuil, de Saint-Geran, de 
Mailly, and de Guiche. In February there was an- 
other dinner and other guests, " Mesdames de Main- 
tenon, Princesse d'Harcourt, de Chevreuse, de Beau- 
villiers, Comtesse de Gramont, de Mailly and de 
Dangeau. After dinner the King wished to watch 
all the ladies working, and from time to time he 

[339] 



VERSAILLES 

walked with them about his new house, and gave 
orders for its embellishment." In the details given 
by Dangeau we see here a pleasant side of Louis 
XIV., with the little airs he assumed as a proprietor 
and builder. 

Trianon was completely finished by the end of 
1688; it was even entirely furnished and ready to 
be occupied. Nothing had been neglected that 
could efface the memory of the marvellous little 
building that had been destroyed. The sculptors 
had been followed by the painters, Le Brun, Alle- 
grain, Mignard; the Coypels had painted the panels 
for the rooms, and in his the Dauphin had placed 
four landscapes by Claude Lorrain, which are now 
in the Museum of the Louvre among the best ex- 
amples of that master's work. All the furniture 
was covered with crimson damask brocaded with 
gold: marble appeared everywhere, and as for the 
general effect, Saint-Simon, hostile as he always is 
to Louis XIV. 's buildings, cannot forbear describ- 
ing Trianon as " a palace of marble, of jasper, of 
porphyry, with delicious gardens." 

This charming spot soon became an object for 
constant expeditions on the part of the King, who 
sometimes slept there, and remained for several con- 
secutive days. Apartments were assigned to all the 
royal family. Those of Madame de Maintenon ad- 

[340] 



THE GRAND TRIANON 

joined those of Louis XIV., who was able to see her 
more conviently than at Versailles: here, as at Marly 
and Fontainebleau, he indulged in the pleasure of 
long visits in the morning, which were for him, more 
than for her, the happiest moments of the day. At 
Trianon he gave himself a rest from the restraints 
of etiquette, from receiving ambassadors, from the 
public dinner and the private lever, from the thou- 
sand details in the business of being a King, which 
did not really weary him, but made him conscious 
of the pleasures of repose. He gladly changed the 
large palace for the little one, which was, as it were, 
his country house. " He tasted there the joys of 
seeing the trees pruned under his eyes, and of living 
like a simple country gentleman." 

For Trianon was not a residence of the Court 
like Marly or Fontainebleau; the King's visits there, 
whether they only lasted for an afternoon or for 
several days, were always unceremonious; if he took 
any one with him it was some one he liked. " The 
King often dines at Trianon," writes Dangeau, " and 
as a rule takes with him Madame la Duchesse (de 
Bourgogne), Madame la Princesse de Conti, and 
the ladies; the courtiers do not go." The King, 
who loved to surround himself with women, him- 
self selected the privileged ones. They always went 
without their husbands, and when tlie King wished 

[341] 



VERSAILLES 

to mark his displeasure with the Due de Saint-Simon 
he took to inviting the latter's wife regularly to Tri- 
anon and never to Marly, because the husbands ac- 
companied their wives to Marly as a matter of right. 
During this period then, the Due was unable to go 
anywhere, and the King contrived to load Madame 
de Saint-Simon with favours, since she had done 
nothing amiss. 

It is easy to believe that these invitations were 
much coveted in the feminine world of Versailles. 
It was considered even more desirable to be included 
in the invitations to Trianon than to take part in an 
expedition to Marly. As was only natural, the 
choice fell most frequently on Madame de Main- 
tenon's friends, Mesdames d'Heudicourt, de Roche- 
fort, d'O, de Maulevrier, de Montchevreuil, de 
Saint-Geran, de Levis, de Chevreuse, and de Dan- 
geau. The conscientious chronicler of these details 
of Court history never omits to record the names of 
the ladies invited, and every time that he is able to 
mention Madame de Dangeau it is obvious that this 
flattered husband takes as much pleasure in the fact 
as the King no doubt took in the society of the pretty 
Marquise. 

On summer days when no council was held and 
the morning was therefore free, the King, after 
Mass, started for Trianon with the ladies, and dined 

[342] 



THE GRAND TRIANON 

there. Dinner was at one o'clock, as at Versailles. 
After dinner the minister arrived who was to work 
with the King. They were shut up for an hour or 
more, according to the amount of work there was 
to be done. The whole of the rest of the afternoon 
was consecrated to the chase, to walking about the 
place, and to games, such as the dial of the turning 
ring, portico, and billiards. The King often ar- 
ranged a lottery for pieces of stuff, lace, silver, and 
jewelry of more or less value. This was a deli- 
cate attention to the ladies. They all drew, includ- 
ing Madame de Maintenon, but she immediately 
gave away her winnings. The King did not draw, 
but he took great pleasure in the agreeable surprises 
he had prepared for others. The ladies nearly al- 
ways went down to the edge of the canal, where a 
portion of the flotilla was stationed. A short time 
was then spent on the water, where violins played 
the airs of Lulli ; and at eight o'clock there was music 
or a play in the little theatre. The day ended with 
a supper served under the peristyle, within view of 
those beautiful gardens, which became more fra- 
grant than ever in the evening air. 

Towards the end of his life, however, Louis XIV. 
allowed his favourite retreat to be invaded by the 
crowd of courtiers from Versailles. Let us hear 
Saint-Simon on the subject: " I remember that one 

[343] 



VERSAILLES 

summer the King took to going very often to Tri- 
anon, and gave permission, once for all, to the whole 
Court, men and women alike, to follow him thither; 
he gave a great banquet there for the princesses, his 
daughters, who took their friends there, and other 
women came there freely also whenever they wished. 
. . . Nothing could be more magnificent than 
these evenings at Trianon. The flowers in every 
division of the flower-beds were changed every day, 
and I have seen the King and Court leave the garden 
on account of the excessive number of tuberoses, of 
which the scent made the air fragrant, but was so 
strong on account of their numbers that no one could 
stay in the gardens, although they were of vast size 
and were arranged in terraces on an arm of the 
canal." 

Very important fetes were given there, and could 
bear comparison with those of Versailles. On the 
occasion of the return of the Grand Dauphin, who 
had taken part in the capture of Philipsbourg, a 
grand ballet was performed at Trianon by the 
ladies of die Court. The rehearsals for it con- 
tinued through several weeks. The ballet took 
place before the King on January 5, 1689, and was 
performed on several occasions afterwards. The 
details of this fete are recorded. At three o'clock 
the King, the Grand Dauphin, and the princesses 

[344] 



THE GRAND TRIANON 

repaired to Trianon. Shortly afterwards the King 
and Queen of England arrived. James II. and his 
wife had just lost their throne, and were beginning 
their precarious life at the Court of France, the sad 
life of kings in exile. Louis XIV. did the honours 
of the palace, and showed it to them in detail: the 
courteous guests were full of admiration. The in- 
spection over, the Queen began to play cards with 
Mesdames de Ventadour and d'Epinoy, while the 
two kings conversed for a long time. The usurpa- 
tion of the Prince of Orange, schemes for a restora- 
tion, and the news of the continental war were the 
topics of conversation. They were interrupted by 
the arrival of a note from M. de Louvois, with the 
information that the Elector of Bavaria was ap- 
proaching Heidelberg. At half-past five Madame 
la Dauphine arrived, and the ballet began. The 
Kings and the Queen of England were in the gallery 
with some ladies. The ballet was a great success: 
it was called the Palace of Flora, and the performers 
represented naiads and sylvan gods, and heroes and 
heroines of antiquity, who came to share in the re- 
joicings at the return of Monsiegneur le Dauphin, 
and to celebrate the victories won by the king and his 
son. 

From the theatre of the Grand Trianon our 
thoughts pass naturally to the much more famous 

[347] 



VERSAILLES 

theatre of Marie Antoinette. On its little stage 
were represented several of the fashionable operas 
that were being given in Paris. All the musicians 
and dancers came from Paris w^ith their costumes. 
These performances always took place en grand 
particulier, to use the expression common at the 
time; that is to say, before a very limited audience. 
The King generally sat in the gallery with a few 
companions. As a rule, as soon as the ladies were 
seated, refreshments were handed round in baskets, 
and then the opera began. 

Of all the women who visited Trianon the young 
Duchesse de Bourgogne most deserves to have her 
memory associated with it. The charming part she 
played in history is well known. Marie Adelaide 
of Savoy arrived in France when she was but eleven 
years old, and thus became French at a very early 
age, and her spirits and gaiety brought a little bright- 
ness into the melancholy old age of Louis XIV. She 
charms us to-day as she charmed the King — the King 
whose many disillusionments had made him sad in 
his latter days. The Duchesse de Bourgogne was 
the spoilt child, not only of the Court of Versailles, 
but also of the Grand Roi. Saint-Simon informs us 
that " he placed his afifections more and more on the 
princess, who merited them by a degree of thought- 
fulness, tact, and charm beyond her years." 

[348] 



THE GRAND TRIANON 

Trianon pleased the Duchesse, and the King had 
a suite of rooms instantly prepared for her. He 
himself took care that everything in them was at- 
tractive and w^ell arranged, and in the details of these 
preparations he showed all the tenderness of a grand- 
father. The room he had destined for his grandson 
was the one that is now called the Salon Frais, at 
the end of his own suite of rooms. This salon over- 
looked the Jardin des Sources, and the surrounding 
trees and brooks kept it always cool. Here the 
Duchesse established herself during the summer of 
1699, for she had conceived a great affection for Tria- 
non. Her husband, Fenelon's pupil, the studious Due 
de Bourgogne, had composed as a school-room exer- 
cise a fine eulogy of Trianon in Latin verses, in which 
he had compared it to Baiae, Tibur, Tempe, and all 
the beautiful places sung by the classical poets. The 
Dauphine paid it a still greater compliment, in that 
she chose to live in it from time to time. She pro- 
longed her visit there, even after the King had re- 
turned to Versailles. It was her garden and her 
palace ; she gave fetes and gathered her little Court 
round her there. 

It was but natural that this princess, whom all 
the portrait-painters represented with flowers in her 
hand, should be charmed by the countless flowers of 
the beds and borders of Trianon. There were odier 

[ 349 ] 



VERSAILLES 

attractions to bind her to the place : the King, know- 
ing her weakness for the game of mall, had made a 
ground where she and her ladies might play it. She 
had also a pleasure of a less innocent kind in lans- 
quenet, a game that was already the chief amusement 
of the Court, and was to become in the next century 
a positive passion. 

This was the darling sin of the little Duchesse, 
and a cause of continual relapses, for which she 
humbly expressed contrition to her " dear aunt," 
as she called Madame de Maintenon; and no doubt 
it was from Trianon that she wrote to her: "I am 
quite determined to mend my ways and to play no 
more at that wretched game, which only injures my 
reputation and weakens your affection, which is more 
precious to me than all. ... I flatter myself 
that my age is not yet so advanced, nor my reputation 
so much tarnished, that I shall be unable to succeed 
with time." 

This lovely princess had a whole circle of young 
women about her; and when the Court was at Ver- 
sailles the usual meeting-places of this joyous band 
were Trianon and the Menagerie. The Menagerie 
was at the other end of the Canal, and contained ani- 
mals of the rarest descriptions. There was a little 
chateau there, filled with the most exquisite furni- 
ture, and this had been given to the Duchesse de 

[350] 



THE GRAND TRIANON 

Bourgogne by the King. She had a dairy there, and 
a poultry-yard, and all her little rural activities; 
very similar to those of a later day at Trianon, in 
Marie Antoinette's time. There was constant inter- 
course between the two houses, a constant passing to 
and fro of gondolas and boats on the two arms of the 
Canal. The Menagerie has been entirely destroyed, 
and replaced by an uninteresting farm: the impor- 
tant collection of animals it contained was made into 
the nucleus, towards the end of the eighteenth cen- 
tury, of the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. 

The Duchesse de Bourgogne, who was indefatiga- 
ble in the pursuit of pleasure, organised the fetes 
for the Carnival of 1702, which were very gay, and 
recalled the best years of the old Court. Trianon 
was the scene of them all, as we learn from the Mer- 
cure Galant, which gives every detail of the incidents 
of each day. 

On Shrove Sunday the King, having held a coun- 
cil in the afternoon, left Versailles at half-past five 
for Trianon. Madame la Duchesse de Bourgogne 
arrived there a few moments earlier, " dressed as a 
Spanish lady." Two new plays were represented, 
and the King watched them from the gallery with 
Madame la t)uchesse de Bourgogne beside him. 
Monseigneur, the princesses, and the princes were 
below in the body of the theatre. After the play a 

[353] 



VERSAILLES 

great number of ladies remained, who had been 
invited to the supper; they were all magnificently 
dressed in gold and silver stufifs. The two great 
tables were filled; those, that is to say, of the King 
and Monseigneur. On leaving the table His Maj- 
esty, followed by the whole Court, proceeded to the 
salon at the end of the gallery, and there played at 
portique. The King passed the night at Trianon. 

On the following day, Monday, the party returned 
thither, for the little Duchess wished to dine there 
with the King. Although the weather was bad she 
went into the garden with him after dinner, to see one 
of the new fountains that were so constantly being set 
up there. At about four o'clock the ladies arrived 
to hear the opera of Omphale. Destouches, the 
composer of the music, was in the hall, and after 
the performance was complimented by the King. 

The princess returned the next day for dinner, for 
the King really could not exist without her. She 
then went back to Versailles to dress for the ball in 
the evening, and meanwhile the King drove for two 
hours, till the arrival of the ladies who were invited. 
The ball began at half-past ten. The orchestra had 
been cleared away from the theatre, which had thus 
been transformed into a ballroom. The ladies who 
danced were, in addition to the Duchesse de Bour- 
gogne, Madame la Duchesse, Madame de Melun, 

[354] 



THE GRAND TRIANON 

Madame de la Vrilliere, the Comtesse d'Ayen, the 
Duchesse de Lauzun, the Comtesse d'Estrees, and 
were " all magnificently dressed in Spanish cos- 
tumes." The other ladies were Mesdemoiselles 
d'Armagnac, d'Elbeuf, de Saint-Simon, de Souvre, 
d'Albret, de Chaumont, de Ravetot, and du Maretz. 
We will omit the names of the gentlemen who took 
part in the dances, which were opened by the Due 
de Berri, the Due d'Orleans, and the Comte de 
Toulouse; and on this occasion the Due de Saint- 
Simon was present. By the King's desire his daugh- 
ter, the Princesse de Conti, remained with him in 
the gallery. The Duchesse de Bourgogne had been 
unanimously proclaimed Queen of the Fete. 

Another princess, very different to the pretty 
Duchesse de Bourgogne, had set all her affections 
on Trianon : the daughter of the Elector Palatine — 
as witty as she was malicious* — who had married 
Monsieur, Due d'Orleans and brother of the King. 
She was then called Madame, but now she is usually 
known as La Palatine. " There was much more of 
the man in her than of the woman; she was strong, 
brave, German to the last degree, ... un- 
sociable, always writing by herself, hard, rough, 
quick to take dislikes, with a thousand twists in her 
mind, yet not at all wanting in mind, with the face 
and churlishness of a Swiss, yet capable withal of 

[355] 



VERSAILLES 

a tender and persistent friendship." Such was the 
mother of the Regent, according to Saint-Simon, the 
painter of this portrait, which is as convincing in its 
own way as that of Rigaud. The princess, who at- 
tracted people by her originality, repelled them by 
her ungraciousness. This being her nature " the 
Palatine " was terribly home-sick at the Court of 
France; she was never reconciled to what she called 
her exile. Her letters from Versailles were full of 
bitter judgments, prejudices, and exaggerated cyni- 
cism ; they were coarse, and indifferent to all men and 
all things. She was even wearied by places; the 
Palace of Versailles seemed to her monotonous and 
cold, and she was not at all dazzled by the royal 
magnificence. One thing alone pleased her, the 
gardens. She often walked in them quite alone, and 
the King was flattered by his sister-in-law's admira- 
tion for the Great Park and the gardens, for his cour- 
tiers had very little taste in that direction. " No 
one but you, Madame," said Louis XIV. to her, 
" takes any pleasure in the beauties of Versailles." 
She also liked Trianon, which apparently was spared 
by her piteous mockery, and of which she often 
spoke. 

Among those who frequented Trianon, we must 
not forget the natural daughters of Louis XIV., that 
pretty bevy of Princesses of the Blood who accom- 

[356] 



THE GRAND TRIANON 

panied him on his expeditions, and sometimes tem- 
pered the etiquette and the stiff formality of the 
Court with the giddiness of their twenty years. 
They were (to give them their married names) the 
Duchesse de Bourbon, wife of the great Conde's 
grandson, the Duchesse de Chartres, wife of the fu- 
ture Regent, and the clever and charming Princesse 
de Conti, eldest of the three. The King loved them 
to the point of weakness, as though he felt he owed 
them reparation. The two former were the daugh- 
ters of Madame de Montespan, who had won the 
King's heart from the gentle Duchesse de la Val- 
liere, the mother of the Princesse de Conti. 

The liberty and gaiety of Trianon amused the 
princesses greatly, after their marriage as before. 
They were even tempted to take advantage of their 
liberty, if we may believe an anecdote recorded by 
Dangeau and Saint-Simon concerning an incident 
that created some scandal at the time. The three 
sisters frequently went out in the night, when every 
one was asleep, and walked in the gardens together. 
One night the Duchesse de Chartres was mischiev- 
ous enough to let off some crackers under the win- 
dows of Monsieur, the King's brother and her own 
father-in-law. The King, it appears, was in the se- 
cret. The crackers exploded, Monsieur awoke with 
a start, and guessed the authors of the mischief, 

l3S7l 



VERSAILLES 

whose dresses were fluttering behind the trees. The 
next day he complained to the King, who was obliged 
to make excuses " for the princesses and himself." 

It was at Trianon that Louis XIV. in 1695, at the 
time when the Due de Bourgogne came of age, said 
to the courtiers round him: "We need have no fear 
of a minority in France; since the founding of the 
monarchy there have never been seen at one time a 
grandfather, a father, and a son of an age to govern 
the kingdom." We know how far this prophecy was 
justified; the Grand Dauphin died in 171 1, the Due 
de Bourgogne in 171 2, and the grandfather was the 
last to go, in 171 5, leaving the throne to a child 
five years old, Louis XV., son of the Due de 
Bourgogne. 

With Louis XIV. the brilliant history of the 
Grand Trianon came to an end. Under the Regency 
Trianon and Versailles were alike deserted. There 
is but one prominent event worth noting: the visit 
paid by Peter the Great in 1717, during his so- 
journ in France. The most interesting details of 
his travels are those that show us the inglorious side 
of the man whom La Palatine called "her hero." 
This is what we hear of his visit to Trianon ! " The 
Czar, being at Versailles and Trianon, sent for six- 
teen musicians who entertained him for four days, 
especially in the evening, until three or four o'clock 

[358] 



THE GRAND TRIANON 

in the morning: at the end of which time he sent 
them back to Paris, without having paid them any- 
thing. At the Menagerie, after having seen every- 
thing of interest, he gave twenty-five sols to the turn- 
cock, who, overwhelmed by this largesse, regretted 
that he had not given him a good wetting while 
making the fountains play." The Czar fell ill at 
Trianon, and the indiscreet chronicler does not leave 
us in ignorance of the cause : " It was necessary to 
consult the disciples of Hippocrates, who proceeded 
in a diligence to Trianon, that delicious spot so full 
of charm, where Cupid had triumphed so often, 
and had now laid low one of the greatest princes 
of the world in the person of the Czar, and his travel- 
ling companion. These experts having paid their 
visit, one of them declared that he would not under- 
take a cure for less than four hundred pistoles. 
. . . Which greatly alarmed the prince." 

One day little Louis XV. said to the Marshal de 
Villeroy: " My uncle, the Regent, always makes 
me go to Saint-Cloud or Vincennes; how is it that 
he does not take me to Versailles and Trianon? I 
do love Trianon!" The Court at last returned to 
Versailles, where the royal excursions and hunts 
went on as before; but Trianon was forsaken from 
that time forward, and only occupied at rare inter- 
vals, as, for example, by Stanislas Leczinski, ex- King 

[361] 



VERSAILLES 

of Poland, when he came to visit his daughter, the 
young Queen Marie Leczinska, wife of Louis XV. 
Perhaps on account of this association Trianon 
seemed to please the Queen, and the King gave it 
to her in 1741. She would no doubt have preferred 
an increase of tenderness on the part of her royal 
husband, who was then beginning to neglect her. 

The Duchesse de Chateauroux soon gained an 
ascendency over the heart of the King, in whose 
affections she succeeded her sister, the Comtesse de 
Mailly. She behaved with such haughtiness that 
she made numerous enemies, and she had a melan- 
choly end. After being driven from the King's side 
at Metz, where His Majesty had fallen ill, she was 
recalled to the Court as soon as Louis XV. felt him- 
self out of danger. Soon afterwards, those who had 
reminded him, when death was near, of his duty as 
a King and as a Christian, were sacrificed to the 
resentment of his mistress. Suddenly, in her house 
in the Rue du Bac, where in her recovered pros- 
perity she was cherishing schemes of vengeance, the 
favourite died without warning. When the King 
heard of this catastrophe, being ashamed of his futile 
weakness and distressed by his unexpected loss, he 
went to hide his sorrow, which only increased the 
scandal, from his prying courtiers, and took refuge 
at Trianon. In spite of the time of the year, which 

[362] 



THE GRAND TRIANON 

was December, he shut himself up there, with no 
companions but some ladies who had been the 
Duchess's friends. They declared that they saw 
him weep. 

Thanks to Madame de Pompadour Trianon re- 
ceived a fresh lease of life. In 1749 a complete 
dairy, some poultry, and some aviaries were estab- 
lished there to amuse the King. Louis XV. was 
entertained by them for some time, and took an in- 
terest in the Marquise's fowls; then he grew tired 
of this pursuit as of every other, and the Due d'Ayen 
persuaded him to take up botany. Trianon was the 
scene chosen for this study also. The gardener, 
Claude Richard, prepared for Bernard de Jussieu 
his famous field for experiments, and thus the King's 
caprice rendered an incalculable service to the cause 
of science. But botany wearied him: he turned his 
attention to building, and Gabriel erected for him a 
charming octagonal pavilion, flanked by four rooms 
" for conversation and cards." This pavilion has 
quite recently been restored. And soon, in the new 
gardens that were already known as Le Petit Tri- 
anon, there arose the new, convenient, and elegant 
chateau, which was inaugurated by the Comtesse du 
Barry, and where Marie Antoinette was soon to hold 
her Court. 

From that time forward the royal favour was 

[363] 



VERSAILLES 

chiefly bestowed on Little Trianon. The Grand 
Trianon gradually declined in historical interest, 
which none but Napoleon could revive. During 
the Revolution the botanical garden saved the two 
Trianons from the fate of Marly, which was entirely 
destroyed, being taken to pieces bit by bit till nothing 
was left standing. In order to turn the collections 
contained in this garden to the best account, the sale 
of the demesne — which now belonged to the nation 
— was postponed. Later on, when the first revolu- 
tionary fever was past, the interest that would attach 
to the preservation of the Trianons was understood 
by those in authority. Thus they escaped being sold, 
mutilated, or destroyed. When Napoleon wished 
to restore the old demesne of Versailles, he found 
them almost intact. The Emperor visited them for 
the first time in 1805, accompanied by the Empress 
Josephine: he gave orders for urgent repairs, for 
refurnishing the rooms, and replacing the glass in 
the peristyle, where it still exists. The two parks 
were, as they still are, separated by a sunk path. He 
united them by a bridge. 

On the day that his marriage was dissolved, De- 
cember 16, 1809, Napoleon came to the Grand Tri- 
anon, where he spent a week, while Josephine, for 
her part, retired to Malmaison. The imperial hus- 
band tried to divert his thoughts at this serious junc- 

[364] 




THE BASIN OF LATONA 



THE GRAND TRIANON 

ture of his life; for the separation from the woman 
he undoubtedly still loved caused him much pain. 
He hunted the stag in the forest of Saint-Germain, 
and went shooting in the woods round the Canal. 
" He lives," said an eye-witness, " in a state of 
unusual agitation." 

Later on he returned several times to Trianon 
with the Empress Marie-Louise: he enjoyed going 
over there from Saint-Cloud, and he collected a fine 
library in the Salon des Sources, which was pillaged 
by the Prussians in 1815. He paid visits of several 
weeks in the years 18 10, 181 1, and 1 813, to these little 
rooms that are still so interesting to the tourist, who 
may still see here a whole collection of furniture 
dating from that time. Empire writing-tables, con- 
sole-tables, brackets, and even clocks, add to the 
beauty of the harmonious whole. The memory of 
the Emperor gives them a dignity that is all their 
own. No one asks how these rooms were furnished 
in the days of the Trianon's glory, when Madame de 
Maintenon lived in them. In the rooms where Na- 
poleon worked, the rooms that he made for a while 
the centre of the government of his Empire, how can 
we think of any one but him? 

Under the Restoration Trianon had no history. 
On July 31, 1830, after the Revolution in Paris that 
put an end to the " legitimate " monarchy, Charles 

[367] 



VERSAILLES 

X., formerly the Comte d'Artois and the sympathetic 
friend of Marie Antoinette's gaieties, stopped here 
for a few hours on his way from Saint-Cloud to Ram- 
bouillet. Louis Philippe, too, on February 24, 1848, 
when he in turn was driven from the throne by a new 
Revolution, halted here in the course of his flight. 
It would seem as though the palace built by the 
Grand Rot were destined to watch the passing of the 
French Kings in their last hour of kingship, and to 
shelter them for a moment on the road to exile. 

The Grand Trianon had been occupied on several 
occasions by Louis Philippe and his family. To 
him are due the important alterations by means of 
which the ground-floor was made sanitary. The 
kitchens and offices were placed in the basement, and 
hot-water pipes were established everywhere. The 
architect Nepveu was more successful here than at 
Versailles; it is true that the gilding of the panels 
was discoloured by glue, but at all events the general 
character of the palace was unchanged, and even the 
original arrangement of the rooms was preserved. 

And even now the visitor, by a considerable mental 
effort, may imagine himself in Louis XIV.'s Tria- 
non. Here on the left are the rooms occupied by 
the Grand Dauphin, and the now dismantled Salon 
des Glaces, on which 10,500 livres were spent in 
mirrors made in Paris by the Venetian method. 

[368] 



THE GRAND TRIANON 

Here are the old rooms of Louis XIV., and the new 
ones prepared by Napoleon III. for the use of Queen 
Victoria, who never came to occupy them. Here 
we pause before the four magnificent pictures of 
Boucher, which adorn the Salon des Glaces; and 
here we enter Madame de Maintenon's little rooms 
in the entresol. These rooms are the most con- 
venient and the most home-like of all, and were 
occupied successively by Louis XV., Stanislas Lec- 
zinski, Madame de Pompadour, and finally by 
Napoleon. 

This list of names is an epitome of the whole his- 
tory of the Palace. Further on, at the end of the 
great Gallery, are the rooms of Trianon-sous-Bois, 
which were used by the Duchesse de Bourgogne 
and La Palatine. This was the prison of Marshal 
Bazaine after the Franco-German War, in 1873, 
while the Council of War by which he was tried for 
treason was sitting at Trianon itself, in the great 
peristyle, which was arranged for the occasion as a 
court of justice. 

The gardens of the Grand Trianon arouse ad- 
miration by their design as well as by their extent; 
and their partial wildness only adds to their dignity. 
Some of the paths laid out by Le Notre are covered 
with grass. We seek out the lonely spots that were 
once so decorative, the Halls of Diana, of Zephyr, 

[369] 



VERSAILLES 

and of Flora, and the rest. Most of the artificial 
waters have been restored, and here and there in 
the middle of the fountains are little gilded cuplds 
lying among flowers and holding baskets on the sur- 
face of the water. The principal basin, known as 
the Plafond, lies In front of the chateau, and is 
guarded by marine monsters. But the chief tri- 
umph of art in the gardens is the Buffet, built by 
Mansart, and also known as the Cascade of Trianon. 
Three high steps of variously coloured marbles are 
surmounted by gilded figures of Neptune and Am- 
phitrlte, with lions standing at their feet. On the 
middle step are three bas-reliefs, also gilded, while 
the lowest one is decorated with four masks and three 
vases of white marble. The little erection stands in 
a basin into which the water pours bubbling down 
from the summit In a series of cascades. It is charm- 
ingly ornamental, and has a very rich and happy 
effect even when there is no water. 

The park of Grand Trianon is nearly as large 
in Itself as the gardens of Versailles. It is seldom 
visited, and it is possible to walk In it for hours with- 
out meeting any one. The spot that is most often 
visited is the brilliant flower-garden, whose rich 
colours blend with the red marble of the facades. 
Beside It is a terrace which leads down, by great 
slopes arranged in the shape of a horse-shoe, to the 

[370] 



THE GRAND TRIANON 

edge of the Grand Canal. This is the end of the 
right arm of the Versailles Canal. Opposite to us, 
at the end of the left arm, is the horse-shoe in front 
of the old chateau of the Menagerie. Here we may 
picture the pretty flotilla of the Court moving gaily 
hither and thither; the boats, with their fluttering 
flags, passing to and fro; and the beautiful women 
landing at the wide stone steps, which we may still 
see rising from the water to lead us to the gardens 
of Trianon. 



[371] 



THE PETIT TRIANON 

V^^^^HE Petit Trianon is more famous than the 
m ^1 Grand Trianon. This is because it is 
^^^^^ bound up with the memory of Queen 
Marie Antoinette's fate, one of the most 
dramatic in history. We feel the poignant contrast 
between this delightful dwelling, this charming little 
chateau, this pleasant spot with its facilities for out- 
of-door pursuits, and the precmcts of the Temple 
Prison, in which the Chatelaine of Trianon passed 
the last days of her life. 

When, h-aving passed through the gate, one stands 
in the well designed and proportioned entrance-court, 
facing the three storeys of the little square chateau, 
one's first thought is for the Queen who made this her 
favourite dwelling, the scene of her simple domestic 
pleasures, and so often came here to rest from the 
agitations and fatigues of Versailles. We must re- 
member, however, that Little Trianon existed before 
the days of Marie Antoinette, for although it is re- 

[372] 



THE PETIT TRIANON 

garded as the most finished model of the Louls-Seize 
style, it was in the time of Louis XV. that it was built. 
Madame de Pompadour's architect Gabriel designed 
it, and began to build it in 1762, while the Marquise 
was still alive. She had conceived the idea of it in 
order to give the King, who was so often bored, the 
interest of watching the building operations going on 
under his eyes, amid the farmyards, the homesteads, 
and the vast botanical gardens that he had already 
established at Trianon. 

", The building — carefully finished in every detail — 
was not completed till 1768, and the first associations 
attached to it are concerned with Madame du Barry. 
She much enjoyed walking in the gardens ; she some- 
times came here, too, to have supper with the King 
and some of their mutual friends, and these supper- 
parties, which the imagination of the pamphleteers 
transformed into positive orgies, were, on the con- 
trary, perfectly decorous and marked by the most 
tasteful refinement. 

Louis XV. fell ill while he was staying at Trianon 
in the spring of 1774, and was moved to Versailles, 
where he died. The young Queen Marie Antionette 
asked the King to give her Trianon for a country- 
house, as Louis XV. had given the first Trianon to 
Marie Leczinska. 

Marie Antionette disliked the restraints of the 
[373] 



VERSAILLES 

Court and the bondage of etiquette: she longed to 
emancipate herself, and found at Trianon the means 
of living a domestic life and, like a simple bour- 
geoise, presiding over a house and a garden. At first 
she merely gathered the royal family round her here 
and gave them little entertainments in the Orangery. 
In the afternoons the Queen went to Trianon at- 
tended only by two or three ladies; but soon she 
wearied of constantly seeing the monotonous plots of 
botanical specimens, and decided to move the whole 
collection to the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, and to 
use the space for pleasure-grounds in the new style. 

The French style of garden was beginning to be 
replaced by the English style, which was then called 
Anglo-Chinese. A great number of country places 
and Parisian gardens had already been designed in 
this fashion, which corresponded with a general 
change in taste. Marie Antoinette's park was not 
the first in France, but it soon became the most per- 
fect model of that style of park, since it was adorned 
unsparingly with everything that was charming and 
uncommon. First a lake was formed, and some 
rivers flowing in irregular curves; then an artificial 
rock and some alterations in the lie of the land were 
ingeniously arranged. On a hill that dominated the 
lake a belvedere arose, and sculptors and painters 
vied with each other in decorating it exquisitely. On 

[374] 



THE PETIT TRIANON 

a grassy island stood a light cupola, supported by a 
Corinthian colonnade and surrounded by reeds; this 
was the Temple of Love where Bouchardon's statue 
was placed: Love making himself a bow out of the 
club of Hercules. 

The interior of the chateau Is still very much as it 
was when Marie Antoinette occupied it. The stair- 
case, whose walls are undecorated except for some 
carving, has a banister of wrought iron in which, 
among the lyres and caducei, Marie Antoinette's 
cipher was placed. On the left side of the landing is 
a door leading to the rooms in the entresol and to the 
staircase of the second floor, where the rooms of the 
Queen's guests were situated. The door on the right 
leads to the reception-rooms. The ante-chamber is 
decorated with friezes by Natoire. The dining- 
room, which comes next in order and has friezes by 
Pater, is remarkable for its woodwork, on which are 
carved a number of branches laden with fruit, horns 
of plenty, and other symbols connected with the uses 
of the room. Here we see, in addition to the full- 
length portraits of Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette, 
some pictures representing the latter dancing ballets 
with her brothers and sisters, the archdukes and arch- 
duchesses of Austria. The Empress Marie Therese 
sent these pictures to her daughter to remind her of 
her childhood. 



VERSAILLES 

The adjoining salon Marie Antoinette made into 
a billiard-room: and this, like the two preceding 
rooms, opens on to a large flight of steps leading down 
to a little French garden that dates from the time of 
Louis XV. The other fagades overlook the Eng- 
lish garden. 

And now we pass into the large salon. The carved 
panels that are now white were formerly a very pale 
shade of bluish green, with the carvings picked out in 
white with touches of gold; the design being com- 
posed of garlands of wild flowers, and branches of 
lilies, the royal flower, surrounded by laurels. The 
furniture of those days was covered with crimson silk 
and gold lace; that of to-day has no pretensions save 
that of being suitable to the decoration and associa- 
tions of the place. The pianoforte, it is plain, did 
not belong to the Queen, but it serves to remind us 
of the musical gatherings of Marie Antoinette's cir- 
cle, to whom she sang the music of Mozart and Gre- 
try. The following rooms, the boudoir, bedroom, and 
dressing-room, are in the entresol; here the ceiling is 
considerably lower, and the woodcarvings executed 
for Marie Antoinette are remarkable for their ex- 
treme delicacy. They consist of garlands of roses 
and jasmine, interspersed with doves, crowns, and 
quivers, with the lyre and the shield of fleurs-de-lys. 
On the pretty marble chimney-piece there is a bust 

[378] 



THE PETIT TRIANON 

of Marie Antoinette, a specimen of old Sevres china : 
some of the furniture in the bedroom belonged to her, 
and the flowers sewn on the coverlet must have been 
embroidered for one of her beds, since her cipher and 
the King's appear in them. 

It was in this room that Marie Antoinette lay ill in 
the spring of 1779, when she had the measles. A 
few months after the birth of her eldest daughter, 
Madame Royale, the doctors ordered her to leave the 
palace of Versailles while she was recovering her 
strength. She established herself at Trianon with 
her whole household, and violated all the customs of 
the Court by accepting four gentlemen as sicknurses: 
her friends the Due de Coigny, the Due de Guines, 
the Comte Eszterhazy, and the Baron de Besenval. 
This thoughtless action, in which the Queen saw only 
an innocent amusement, was the cause of a great deal 
of comment at Court, and was the origin of the mali- 
cious insinuations against her which became so com- 
mon later on. 

She grew more and more attached to her country- 
house. The Princesses of the Blood spent whole 
days there, and the King joined them sometimes on 
returning from the chase. The Queen showed her- 
self to be an accomplished hostess, desiring only to 
please the friends she was entertaining. "The 
Queen," says an eye-witness, " remained sometimes 

[379] 



VERSAILLES 

for a month at a time at the Petit Trianon, and had 
established there all the customs of country life: 
when she entered her drawing-room the ladies did 
not leave the piano nor lay down their needlework, 
the men did not break off their game of billiards or 
backgammon. . . . The Queen was accompa- 
nied by Madame Elizabeth, but dispensed with the 
ladies of honour and the ladies of the Palace. The 
invited visitors arrived from Versailles in time for 
dinner. The King and the princes came to supper 
regularly. A dress of white muslin, a gauze fichu, 
and a straw hat — such was the whole attire of the 
princesses." 

Among the pastimes of Trianon we must not for- 
get the merry-go-round that was set up on the lawn, 
under the shade of a pavilion in the Chinese style. 
But the most popular occupation of all was walking 
in the gardens: no one ever wearied of the endless 
variety of this carefully tended garden, whose praises 
were sung by the Prince de Ligne, a good judge of a 
garden and a friend of the Queen. When the latter 
was absent she allowed strangers to visit the place, 
which they were very glad to do, and the gardener 
Richard proudly showed them the Chinese and 
American trees he was trying to acclimatise, and the 
pines, larches, and junipers that he had brought from 
the Alps himself. 

[380] 



THE PETIT TRIANON 

Sometimes fetes were held at Trianon, and the 
doors were opened to large numbers of guests. Such, 
for instance, were the occasions when Marie An- 
toinette gave magnificent receptions to her brother 
the Emperor Joseph II. during his visit to France; 
to the hereditary prince of Russia and the Grand- 
duchess Marie, who travelled under the name of the 
Comte and Comtesse du Nord; and finally to the 
King of Sweden, Gustav III. Three hundred guests 
were then invited to supper; a thousand attendants 
were lodged in the dependencies of the chateau; the 
bands of the French and Swiss Guards played in the 
gardens, where the guests walked among the illu- 
minations that lit up the shrubberies discreetly, and 
made the Temple of Love the most brilliant spot in 
the garden. 

Knowing the taste for the stage that then prevailed, 
we can well believe that Marie Antoinette wished to 
add a theatre to her house. She had it built in 1780, 
and often sent for the troupes of the Parisian theatre. 
This resulted in extravagances and expenses that 
caused her to be much inveighed against, especially 
when the national finances began to be seriously em- 
barrassed. Marie Antoinette incurred no less dis- 
approval by appearing on the stage herself, and act- 
ing a play with her brother-in-law, the Comte 
d'Artois, and Madame de Polignac's set. She was, 

[381] 



VERSAILLES 

however, indulging in a very harmless pleasure be- 
fore a very limited public, and often in the King's 
presence. She performed the fashionable plays and 
comic operas, and the last she took part in was Beau- 
marchais's Barber of Seville. 

No visitor ever omitted to repair to the further end 
of the park of Little Trianon, there to inspect the 
group of rustic houses that formed Marie Antoinette's 
Hamlet. The design and arrangement of these 
charming little houses were most carefully thought 
out by the Queen's experts in rural architecture, in 
order to ensure the most picturesque and pleasing 
views. The best view of the principal houses re- 
flected in the water is to be obtained by walking round 
the lake. 

The building of the Hamlet, which was finished in 
1786, was the last flight of Marie Antoinette's 
imagination. It is in accordance with the taste of 
the time, which tended towards the life of the fields, 
and opposed the simplicity of rustic manners to the 
luxury and artificiality of the life of towns. The 
princesses, who were always surrounded by courtiers 
and lackeys, must have taken a real pleasure in draw- 
ing closer to the humble folk whom they had only 
seen in the far distance, in watching them attending 
to their various pursuits, and in studying their 
opinions and their simple language. For the Ham- 

[382] 



THE PETIT TRIANON 

let was occupied by several rustic households, who 
lived on the spot and carried on real farming opera- 
tions. The Queen established there the families of a 
farmer, a gardener, and a keeper. The farm, which 
stands a little aloof, and is approached by a private 
way, contained a splendid herd of Swiss cows, as well 
as calves, sheep, goats, pigs, and rabbits. There was 
a large poultry-yard and a dairy supplied by the 
milk from the farm ; some of the milk was taken to 
the Queen's dairy, where she sometimes amused her- 
self, with her friends, in making butter and cheese 
under the direction of the farmer's wife. The mill, 
moreover, which apparently was only made with a 
view to the picturesque, was used for grinding corn. 

It was an innocent amusement for the Queen and 
her children to watch the work of this little demesne. 
There was even in the middle of the Hamlet a little 
dwelling for the royal family, larger and more orna- 
mental than the other houses. It was tastefully fur- 
nished, and they often dined in it; the kitchens oc- 
cupied a separate house at the back. An outer gal- 
lery, entirely covered with Virginia creeper, united 
the Queen's House with the billiard-house; in the 
latter the billiard-room was on the ground floor, and 
the little sitting-room on the first storey contained a 
library. 

The Queen also had at her disposal a little house 

[383] 



VERSAILLES 

called the boudoir, the interior of which was very 
dainty. The Queen's private dairy was all faced 
with marble. The little belvedere attached to it, 
overlooking the lake, was called Marlborough's 
Tower, in allusion to a popular French song : it was 
approached by an outside staircase, bright with stocks 
and geraniums. 

No credence must be given to the numerous legends 
that are rife on the subject of the Hamlet, such as that 
which shows us the royal family playing at shepherds 
and shepherdesses, and assuming various rustic char- 
acters in order to live in the Hamlet. This is a 
ridiculous fable. Marie Antoinette never played at 
keeping farm, and the King never disguised himself 
as a miller; but it is a sufficiently piquant sight to see 
them interesting themselves so intimately in agricul- 
tural labour, and seeking recreation and rest amid 
these rustic surroundings., 

The visitor to the Hamlet of Trianon must surely 
be deeply touched by such memories as these, and 
must wish these fragile little houses to be carefully 
preserved. Their thatched roofs and their appear- 
ance of absolute simplicity are an evidence of the 
taste of the period immediately preceding the French 
Revolution, and form an interesting contrast with the 
splendours of the neighbouring palace of Versailles. 

[384] 



4 



I 






.^ ^^. 








<. 



A 














^. 




^AO^ 










t^„ 




-^0^ 




t o\ 







^^ . 





'o„o- .0 >?> '^"^* .V °^ "o-^- 





















'"', '^o 






















"v^* 









Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process 

(ide 
Treatment Date: '"'rtl 208t 

PreservationTechnologiei 



. V-^ ^ Neutralizing agent: J^J^^esium OxWe 



•^o^ 



w;<i' 



"^aV 



*^ •'L^SJ^t'- "^ A WORLD LEADER IN PAPEHPBESERVATIO 

111 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 



.^^r 












^0^ 












A 



S>' 






'%. "'"O 






^^ ; 



,-JV' 









<^. 



■<*. 












.^ 



v.- 













"-..- 



v^iiv^^-^ .^-^ 






"°o 



.0- 









■^ 

<^. 

























0^ 



-1 o 



Vtv "^^ 




:<7<^' 



